VW News 2012 & WRC 2013

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Originally Posted by Walach

Maybe two years ago...now he is out of WRC for third season and it´s IMHO too much.

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meh, he's young enough to bounce back.

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Originally Posted by RS

... I guess Petter, Hanninen and Mikkelsen are three of the six.

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These are definitely the drivers to form the final and complete end-selection at VW. :up:

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Originally Posted by Walach

Maybe two years ago...now he is out of WRC for third season and it´s IMHO too much.

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Meeke was away for longer (and never in a full WRC team before anyway) and he is stacking up pretty well against Sordo given his huge experience deficit.

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Originally Posted by danon

These are definitely the drivers to form the final and complete end-selection at VW. :up:

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I agree that would make a good team, although you could maybe substitute one of the Ford guys for Petter if neccesary.

Spoke to Atko in Germany,and he said he had no chance of a works drive next year,and the chances of him competing nxt year in customer car was slim as he can't get finances.He said he had spoken with vw but nothing serious, and while there is a chance of driving in wrc again he wont give up.

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Originally Posted by fastboy

Spoke to Atko in Germany,and he said he had no chance of a works drive next year,and the chances of him competing nxt year in customer car was slim as he can't get finances.He said he had spoken with vw but nothing serious, and while there is a chance of driving in wrc again he wont give up.

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I'm happy and sad to hear this. Can't Ken Block hook him up with the Monster car for an event he won't be doing anyway? I'm sorry that it has come down to money for him, but surely a APRC title in an eye-catching car like Proton would help him?

How much would Atko's chances improve if Mini were allowed to enter a third works car for him? I would think Dave Richards could make an exception for him.

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Originally Posted by Plan9

I'm happy and sad to hear this. Can't Ken Block hook him up with the Monster car for an event he won't be doing anyway? I'm sorry that it has come down to money for him, but surely a APRC title in an eye-catching car like Proton would help him?

How much would Atko's chances improve if Mini were allowed to enter a third works car for him? I would think Dave Richards could make an exception for him.

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I did hear something a while back suggesting he may enter WRC in the monster world rally team, I guess nothing came of it. Shame, I'd love to see him back.

I was hoping he would become a bit like Block & Rossi i.e take up a sponsorship profile with Monster and be included on its homepage as a way to promote himself and the brand. I guess this kind of thinking gets you nowhere as there is not much money to be made endorsing rally drivers when you could choose a Moto-X tool with a tattooey neck.

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Originally Posted by RS

On the one hand VW said in Motorsport News this week that they are only considering people from IRC or sWRC for their Fabia drives and that there was "no-one" from Britain to consider, and then on the other hand they are looking at people like Lindroos, Riedemann, Gilmour. Doesn't seem to be a great deal of consistency there.

Will be interesting to see who they pick for the remaining rounds this year.

I guess Petter, Hanninen and Mikkelsen are three of the six.

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I imagine we could guarantee that Mikkelsen will be in the VW team. It would be mad to let go of him.

I hope that Hanninen is not going into an end of year slump that could lead him to lose the SWRC and IRC titles. If that happens I expect he won't get higher than a Customer Fiesta for the rest of his career.

Do you think that Kopecky is being prepaired for a run at the WRC, it seems that Skoda still favors him and he has some speed in him still.

Nominations for VW test sessions.

Baumschlager/Zeltner, Lavanttal-Rallye 2011 - YouTube (Raimund Bauschlager for tarmac setup)
"Mini Countryman WRC" by Marcus Grönholm_4º Day of Tests at Ponte de Lima, Portugal 2010.avi - YouTube (Gronholm) I wonder if he created some interesting gravel test data for the Mini and feedback.