[WRC] News & rumours (part IV) 2016

[pantealex]

Neuville, Breen and Lefebvre all have 2 year deals, so is there any drivers who could move to 2018.

If Toyota (or Ford) is good, who is available for 2018 ?

[Simmi]

Neuville, Breen and Lefebvre all have 2 year deals, so is there any drivers who could move to 2018.

If Toyota (or Ford) is good, who is available for 2018 ?

All 3 VW drivers?

Certainly VW and JML could decide not to take the option on his services in 2018. Does anyone actually know how long Mikkelsen and Ogier's deals are for? They don't seem to have been publicly stated.

It could be almost all driver contracts are up at the end of 2018. Only guys I've read who have options for 2019 are Latvala and Sordo. But that means almost nothing.

[seb_sh]

All 3 VW drivers?

Certainly VW and JML could decide not to take the option on his services in 2018. Does anyone actually know how long Mikkelsen and Ogier's deals are for? They don't seem to have been publicly stated.

It could be almost all driver contracts are up at the end of 2018. Only guys I've read who have options for 2019 are Latvala and Sordo. But that means almost nothing.

VW hasn't given exact dates just hints like "multi year". Going on how they announced in 2014 that they are extending their participation to 2019 (was until 2015 initially) I'd expect Ogier and maybe Mikkelsen have deals or options until then. That's just me speculating but if I was deciding at VW that's what I would try to do.

[dimviii]

WRC - THE 2017 WORLD RALLY CAR - ON BOARD WITH SAFETY

http://www.fia.com/news/wrc-2017-wor...r-board-safety

[dimviii]

[Simmi]

In Motorsport News today Michel Nandan says he would like to keep Kevin Abbring next year - primarily as a test driver.

But he's aware that Abbring wants to do more rallies. So if nothing else it seems that Hyundai will still aim to retain four drivers on their books.

In other news they are saying that the China round will likely be held back until 2018. They again say rumours are there wasn't too much wrong with the roads this year and it wasn't enough reason for cancellation.

There are also quotes from Ogier and Matton expressing doubts about whether the WRC should be in Turkey.

Also Malcolm Wilson is calling for the current road running order to remain the same...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Any more on that China Rally story ?

[Simmi]

Any more on that China Rally story ?

Yeah sure.

The story says the rally will be postponed until 2018 according to MN sources.

One source in China said that they drove the entire rally route this year and only two places would have caused a problem. And one of those could be fixed easily.

So basically it was the local organiser's decision to cancel and it seems that the area doesn't want the rally. Which is all stuff we've heard before. But the article doesn't mention the lack of funding which was heavily rumoured as the real reason the rally didn't happen.

Matton quoted as saying he wants a sustainable rally in China. So not one that will run once and then disappear. And he says there is no need to rush - which is a bit rich given the ultimatums Citroen seemed to give about going to China.

[EstWRC]

more about the new m-sport car?

[Simmi]

Didn't find out too much about the new car apart from M-Sport are very confident in it. David Evans sat in with Matt Wilson on a recent test. They were able to try some stuff on an existing car with a big restrictor in testing before creating the mule which ran before Finland.