[WRC] News & rumours (part II)

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Originally Posted by Buzz Lightyear

Everything point to a pull out for 2010 for Citroen.

Sordo has a contract just for next year,
Redbull Extended contract for one year,
Seb getting itchy feet,
Citroen are only committed for end of 2009.

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Well, it would be stupid to commit for 2010, if you don't know the rules yet.

Two rumours from Greek site rally.gr:

Suzuki to continue in WRC with current line-up

VW enters WRC in 2011 with Prodrive.

any more news or confirmations of the above?

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Originally Posted by Leon

Two rumours from Greek site rally.gr:

Suzuki to continue in WRC with current line-up

VW enters WRC in 2011 with Prodrive.

any more news or confirmations of the above?

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With Prodrive????

Erm, were does that leave Subaru??

Maybe they make two programmes together... They make loads of things: Subaru, Aston Martin, etc...

I think it would be a bit of a conflict of interest to run two WRC programmes though..

I also can't see why VW would chose Prodrive based on recent performance.

I don't know why VW would seriously consider joining WRC at the moment until it's (WRCs) current problems are sorted out either.

WRC for VW will be anyway better compared to the Dakar and Dakar Series coverage and popularity.

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Originally Posted by RS

I think it would be a bit of a conflict of interest to run two WRC programmes though..

I also can't see why VW would chose Prodrive based on recent performance.

I don't know why VW would seriously consider joining WRC at the moment until it's (WRCs) current problems are sorted out either.

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I tend to agree.

But if you look at in the other hand, Prodrive has a great history, vast resources and Boss with pulling power in the WRC.
M-Sport obviously runs more than one team so I cant really see why Prodrive couldnt do the same. Mind you, its the hard way to do things. I would have thought it be a smarter move to get some other company with WRC experience to run a VW program (Bozian, RED, Kronos etc.).

In any case, Id still welcome VW to the championship.

M-Sport runs more than 1 team , but they are all Ford. I don't know why VW would want to go to Prodrive - they haven't covered themselves in glory recently in WRC, though the GT1`Astons have been going reasonably well. Why not do it in-house? They've got the resources of Audi, etc

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Originally Posted by grugsticles

I would have thought it be a smarter move to get some other company with WRC experience to run a VW program (Bozian, RED, Kronos etc.).

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It's a different thing to run a car already developed by someone else than to actually develop the car from scratch - and AFAIK teams you mentioned do not have experience or resources from top class rally car development.

If VW rumor is true, I too am surprised if they team up with Prodrive, mostly because of Subaru contact should have a non-competing clause in it. VW would be an ideal company to join, big and well suited to WRC.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

I don't know why VW would want to go to Prodrive - they haven't covered themselves in glory recently in WRC, though the GT1`Astons have been going reasonably well. Why not do it in-house? They've got the resources of Audi, etc

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What comes to Prodrive's lack of success lately has been discussed in various "why Subaru isn't winning" -threads so I don't delve too deep into that but I think that the base car has some blame to shoulder.

But the in-house team might be an interesting proposal, after all when Martin Muehlmeier took over the Skoda WRT a couple of years back, one of his strengths was said to be inside knowledge and ability to draw resources from Audi Sport. Unfortunately, that did not bear fruit but VW could easily find knowledgeable people from withing the company. Granted, they'd need a skilled chief engineer but hey, didn't Michel Nandan leave Suzuki?

Just for the record: I believe this VW rumor when I see it happen.