2023 WRC News & Rumours

[WRCStan]

Great to see Mexico and Chile back.

What's the likely CER in October ?

Edit. AUT/CZE/DEU
The WRC’s new Central European tarmac event will be based out of south east Germany and will venture into Austria and the Czech Republic. It will effectively replace the popular Rally Spain, which drops off the schedule, having been a mainstay since 1991.

https://www.ewrc-results.com/events/59-3-stadte-rallye/

Funny this was what robbed Catalunya in the end, not $audi, as everybody said. It were the Czechbucks!

[bandit12]

BritishRallyMedia @BritRallyMedia 55m
A certain Estonian rally driver is currently in Greystoke Forest. Could be nothing.

https://twitter.com/BritRallyMedia

Markko Martin 😮

[Danny0405]

https://www.rally.it/2022/11/oliver-...o-nel-wrc2/amp
Quite clear interview from Petter Solberg apparently in Swedish website, no Rally1 for Oliver in 2023; they are looking for support to build a Rally2 program

Also Gronholm in a Finnish interview clearly said Huttunen’s one-off in Finland was a clear failure in terms of money spent and is not happy at all about M-Sport for no compensation (because of mechanical) and sounds short of money.

Clearly reduce the contenders for the last spots available in M-Sport: lets only Loubet, Loeb, Tanak, Greensmith (except gentlemen drivers).

For 4th Toyota, why not a surprise with a driver to help to develop the Rally2 (in exchange for salary to develop it); Hyundai steals them Lappi, why not stealing Suninen.

[pantealex]

Clearly reduce the contenders for the last spots available in M-Sport: lets only Loubet, Loeb, Tanak, Greensmith (except gentlemen drivers).

For 4th Toyota, why not a surprise with a driver to help to develop the Rally2 (in exchange for salary to develop it); Hyundai steals them Lappi, why not stealing Suninen.

In my mind Mikkelsen would be good (paid salary) man for Yaris Rally2 development

[TypeR]

BREAKING NEWS!

Still no news!

[mknight]

https://www.rally.it/2022/11/oliver-...o-nel-wrc2/amp
Quite clear interview from Petter Solberg apparently in Swedish website, no Rally1 for Oliver in 2023; they are looking for support to build a Rally2 program

Also Gronholm in a Finnish interview clearly said Huttunen’s one-off in Finland was a clear failure in terms of money spent and is not happy at all about M-Sport for no compensation (because of mechanical) and sounds short of money.

Wonder what car they are thinking for Rally2. New Skoda is maybe too fresh (unknown performance) and Skoda already has quite many drivers both proven (like Lindholm) and unproven (Pajari).
They likely want to avoid Hyundai now.
Polo is still competitive, but they won get any money/support from factory.
Could C3 with some support be an option. (but I heard Citroen was kind of pulling out).


Sure Huttunen has all the reasons to be unhappy. Pretty bad advertising for MSport too. Remember Latvala got promised a replacement rally when his car failed early in Sweden 2020. (but then COVID came and he got teamboss job instead

[TypeR]

How is Latvala's Yaris WRC issues in Sweden 20' related to all of this?

[M3 Jambo]

How is Latvala's Yaris WRC issues in Sweden 20' related to all of this?

Because of the issues with the Toyota, they promised Latvala another event, Huttunen no similar offer from MSport.

[AnttiL]

Wonder what car they are thinking for Rally2. New Skoda is maybe too fresh (unknown performance) and Skoda already has quite many drivers both proven (like Lindholm) and unproven (Pajari).
They likely want to avoid Hyundai now.
Polo is still competitive, but they won get any money/support from factory.
Could C3 with some support be an option. (but I heard Citroen was kind of pulling out).

Skoda Fabia Evo would still be better than C3 or Hyundai. Not sure how Polo compares. But I'm guessing they are going with the Polo.

[Kenneth]

I don't see any reason why they would drive anything else than Škoda, if they don't to use VW.