2018 Teams

[Rally Power]

This is not correct, it was only the case for this year because the deadline for entry had passed. If someone has approval from VW and money they can enter the cars in 2018, no problem.

Not quite so. The problem with the ‘17 Polo was homologation rules. In order to be homologated a WRC car must be run on a 2 car team for a whole season (the team can be private, as long it's designated by the manu). The first option (Jipocar running Ogier and Prokop) would be valid but apparently it failed when Al Attiyah got in the middle, delaying the project and interfering with Ogier's chossing window. Mikkelsen's project failed because it was a one car project to be entered on selected events and the other teams didn't consent that kind of rules exception. Anyway, a new street Polo is going to be launch in September. It makes even harder to believe that VW will allow private teams to run a car based on their old model.

Btw, just a tip on Ogier future: can the 'America First' spirit, that's been developed in the US under the new administration (it'd be nice to hear javanpuura about this) and followed by many big corps (GM selling Opel isn't a coincidence), affect Ford's decision to enter WRC?


PS: no need to wait till September; like petalex said on another thread, the new Polo is going to be presented next Friday (11am CET).