The Relationship Between a Rally Team and the Manufacturer

Hi everyone! :D

I have yet another unusual question regarding the inner workings of the WRC world.

I was wondering what is the logistic, business, administrative and technical relationship (if any) between a rally team and the manufacturer of the team's car?

Some specific inquiries that came to my mind, just so you'd get my drift:

• Is there like a racing department in the manufacturer company that is responsible for the team or something like that?[/*:m:1ydrduug]
• Is the team managed by the car manufacturer?[/*:m:1ydrduug]
• Is the team dependent on the car manufacturer for anything, for example car parts or budget? (Or do they get all of their budget from sponsoring?)[list:1ydrduug]
• Do teams have some kind of a contract with the manufacturer to supply them with parts for cheap or for free?[/*:m:1ydrduug]

[/*:m:1ydrduug][*]Is the car manufacturer responsible in any kind of way for all or some of the rally teams using a car made by that manufacturer?[/*:m:1ydrduug][/list:u:1ydrduug]This is just some of the questions I had in mind, if you have anything to add beyond that I would be more than grateful :)

Thanks a lot!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pilau

Hi everyone! :D

I have yet another unusual question regarding the inner workings of the WRC world.

I was wondering what is the logistic, business, administrative and technical relationship (if any) between a rally team and the manufacturer of the team's car?

Some specific inquiries that came to my mind, just so you'd get my drift:

• Is there like a racing department in the manufacturer company that is responsible for the team or something like that?[/*:m:90bft40s]
• Is the team managed by the car manufacturer?[/*:m:90bft40s]
• Is the team dependent on the car manufacturer for anything, for example car parts or budget? (Or do they get all of their budget from sponsoring?)[list:90bft40s]
• Do teams have some kind of a contract with the manufacturer to supply them with parts for cheap or for free?[/*:m:90bft40s]

[/*:m:90bft40s][*]Is the car manufacturer responsible in any kind of way for all or some of the rally teams using a car made by that manufacturer?[/*:m:90bft40s][/list:u:90bft40s]This is just some of the questions I had in mind, if you have anything to add beyond that I would be more than grateful :)

Thanks a lot!

---

The answers to your questions depend very much on the team in question.

Subaru (when they had a presence) and Ford for instance hire a company to operate their racing operations. These companies receive a reasonable amount of financial assistance and then varying degrees of technical assistance from the manufacturer. I would imagine that whatever parts are from the street cars are also provided as part of the contract, although, besides the body shell and engine block there isn't much on most proper race cars that would also be found on a street car.

Citroen, and Peugeot when they were running, operate their racing programs from the sport/performance division from within their own corporate structure. Outside companies may be utilized for various parts of the operations or for some of the making of parts for the cars but the staff is of the employee of the manufacturer instead of an independent operation under contract by the manufacturer.

To get a more comprehensive answer you really need to pick some teams to look at as when you go to S2000 or any of the other classifications or other motorsports there is a huge variance depending on the individual team/program.

Thank you for the very well informed reply.

Okay, so if you would like to get more specific, what can you say on comparing the following teams:

• Citroën Total World Rally Team and Citroën Junior Team, and[/*:m:11imsm2y]
• BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team and Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team[/*:m:11imsm2y]

Teams in bold are labeled by Wikipedia as manufacturer teams, while teams appearing in italic form are labeled as semi-factory teams.

Is there knowledge what has happened to old facilities that WRC teams used before? Maybe some are already demolished but some might be in other use. Does anyone know some facility locations from list below? Could update the list based to comments.

Audi:
Audi Sport, Neckarsulm, Germany (active)

Austin Rover:
Austin Rover WRT, Longbridge, England ?

Citroen:
CWRT, Versailles, France, also in 80's?

Fiat:
?

Ford:
David Sutton Motorsport ?
Ford Motorsport, Boreham, England ?
M-Sport, Cumbria, England (active)

Hyundai:
Motor Sports Development (MSD) facility?
HMG, Alzenau, Germany (active)

Lancia:
?

Mazda:
MRTE, Brussels, Belgium ?

Mini:
Prodrive, Banbury, England (active)

Mitsubishi:
Ralliart, Warwickshire, England ?
MMSP, Trebur, Germany ?

Nissan:
Nissan Motorsports Europe ?

Opel:
Opel Euro Team ?
Opel Rally Team ?

Peugeot:
Peugeot Sport, Bois de Boulogne ? moved to Paris-Saclay, France (active)

Porsche:
Rothmans Porsche Rally Team ?

Renault:
Renault Sport, Les Ulis, France (active)
Gordini, Viry-Chatillon, France (active)
Alpine, Dieppe, France (active)

Seat:
Seat Sport, Martorell, Spain (active)

Skoda:
Skoda Motorsport, Mladá Boleslav, Czech (active)

Subaru:
STI, Mitaka, Japan (active)
Prodrive, Banbury, England (active)

Suzuki:
Suzuki Sport, Esztergom, Hungary?

Talbot:
?

Toyota:
TTE > TMG, Cologne, Germany (active)
TMR, Jyvaskyla, Finland (active)

VW:
VW Motorsport, Hannover, Germany (active)