[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[AnttiL]

Maybe FORD, they have signed like M-Sport Ford WRT for manufacturer championship. And for WRC2 Pro too.

It was already M-Sport Ford WRT last year.

Will be interesting to see who the main sponsor is on the M-Sport cars.

I'm looking at your avatar...

[dimviii]

Will be interesting to see who the main sponsor is on the M-Sport cars.

i said that a miracle happened last week.Dont wait to see any new major sponsor.

[dimviii]

Could be. As last as one week ago MW wanted an exception from FIA for apply this friday, so ...

1) We don´t know how many rallies he will do. Eg. amount of money brought.
2) Maybe he brought that last sum making possible.

Just speculations whatever.

Malcolm has to push till the last time for extra money from Ford and other sponsors.
Thats happening every year.
He is not stupid to go out of the oxygen of his bussines.

[deephouse]

It was already M-Sport Ford WRT last year.

Yes, it was but then again there was Ogier on the board. And still they wasn't satisfied with ''ford involvement'' so that means that maybe just for 2018 and then they are gone again. And no redbull on their cars even harder. But then they came with same name as this season (between 2013-2017 there wasn't Ford name in it) so that explains a lot.

[Mirek]

Škoda CEO Bernhard Maier said that Škoda needed to save 0,5 billion Euro per year in the comming years to finance development related to the electric cars, new emission standards and also building a new factory somewhere (likely Romania or Bulgaria as there is nobody to work in it in here). Considering that it seems that WRC is out of question for now. The R5 project is profitable and shall not be in danger I think.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

It was already M-Sport Ford WRT last year.
.

That is the team name, I'm talking about on the CAR.

Red Bull was the big car sponsor which has gone. Running these 2017 cars is big money and if they dont have a new main sponsor then Dimvii will be proved right.

[AnttiL]

That is the team name, I'm talking about on the CAR.

I was replying to deephouse about the team name...

[Rally Power]

Great to hear about MSport and Evans confirmation, besides Tidemand announced drives. Big disappointment on MC WRC2 Pro: allowing random scoring through the season, instead of a mandatory calendar, probably won’t help this new series to get decent entry lists.

[deephouse]

If it not it will soon be axed like Trophy. My opinion is sceptical about whole Pro thing. OK if there was major interests of many works teams but there ain't so much of them. If you look closely Citroen, Skoda, VW, Hyundai, M-Sport, Peugeot, Proton, Opel, Mitsubishi, Toyota all made their R5 versions but then there is only two of them at the entry for the start (one with oldest spec R5) and others seems not bothered much about this. But then again if you look at this if all would be involved then it could overshadow top WRC category with cheaper costs of running and then probably one or two teams there would leave and stay in lower class... Just my thoughts.

[Mirek]

Uh? Toyota never ever homologated any R5. Same goes for Mitsubishi and Opel. Proton hasn't been yet homologated so it naturally can not compete either. Peugeot stopped their rally activities except R2 cups and their R5 is old and non-competitive -> Citroën takes over.

Citroën and M-Sport are already in. Škoda will be in, just not already from the start. Hyundai? Hard to say but I hope it will be in as well (last year they had a manufacturer entry). Proton won't as their priority is the APRC and the car will come too late for WRC2. VW? Maybe some team will enter the WRC Pro? I don't know but it's certainly possible.

As many pointed out already the WRC2 simply has stupid rules. Why are all events included but only 8 top scores count? I really don't understand why they made it like this.