2023 WRC News & Rumours

[AnttiL]

Rumour that Petter Solberg will drive on the Classic Safari in Kenya 2023, but I presume this is false……

not really a WRC rumour

[Co-driven]

2021 had those extra days I think: https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/wrc-t...tra-test-days/ in 2022 it was tasked to Kalle Rovanperä to test the tyres for the new cars: https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/pirel...ith-rovanpera/

Yes, 2021 had 9 extra days (I attached part of the WRC Regulations from 2021 - sorry, I don't know how to add the image to the text).

And for 2022 it was one day per driver per European round, I think it's the same as 2023 regulations.

As far as I know, Pirelli development should've been done by one Finnish driver, but in the end the teams demanded that they were directly involved in the testing and that's way they had these extra days, as mentioned by you.

[Eli]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/solbe...with-toksport/

So from rumours of going with Ford to conformation going to Škoda’s Toksport, guess it was pretty much anticipated at this point since we saw them test a few days prior.

[Lead]

I wonder whats up with Mikkelsen for next season? We know he will not drive in WRC2 (or at least in Skoda) and WRC1 teams are all but set. So that basically leaves..... nothing?

[SubaruNorway]

Mikkelsen is testing the Skoda today in Finland

[er88]

Would be a shame not to see Meeke and Mikkelsen in the Skoda considering they were the two main development drivers

[skarderud]

A story on Mikkelsen and the hyundai-mess:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...00063747062910

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[skarderud]

The story by google translate, Par Ferme has the story, Norways leading motorsportsite.

The future in Skoda is uncertain for Andreas after the Hyundai mess - We are working on the matter, says the rally profile with an optimistic undertone.

RALLY: It was earlier this autumn that Parc Fermé could reveal that Andreas Mikkelsen had almost felt cheated by Hyundai's factory team in the Rally WC with a view to a contract for next season. The Oslo man claimed to have received the go-ahead for a minimum of six races, that the draft of the contract had been fully approved and that only one signature was missing. Suddenly, Hyundai is said to have turned on the run-up side and chosen another. Subsequently, it has become known that Hyundai has signed Craig Breen and Esapekka Lappi alongside their regular duo over many years, Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo. Parc Fermé presented the criticism to Hyundai Motorsport, but they themselves did not want to comment on Mikkelsen's experience.


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[skarderud]

Part 2

In any case, this has now had worse repercussions than before for Mikkelsen. Because even though he and Skoda have had an open dialogue about his position in the rally circus and what opportunities he must seize if they arise in the top class, the open dialogue has probably struck a small blow to Mikkelsen's face. Because both Mikkelsen and Skoda were so sure that the Hyundai deal was in the works that Skoda instead implemented plan B with other drivers. And then it has become a bit more difficult for Mikkelsen to turn around and stand in the doorway with his hat in hand again. - Yes, everyone was sure that I was going to Hyundai next year and everyone made plans for it. So when that didn't happen, new solutions had to be worked on, says Mikkelsen to Parc Fermé. Nothing is nailed down A Norwegian wishful thinking is to link him up to M-Sport, who recently signed Ott Tänak as their clear first driver for next season after they parted ways with Breen a year early. Formally, two places are still available. M-Sport, which has minimal factory support from Ford, is primarily dependent on drivers who have their own sponsors and their own budget - while Mikkelsen, for his part, does not want to end up in this booth of so-called paid drivers. Therefore, the probability preponderance has been on Skoda and their high-stakes customer team Toksport WRT, until it is now clear that there appears to be little room for him. They already have WRC 2 champion Emil Lindholm and Russian Nikolay Gryazin on the team, and a number of other drivers are also knocking on the door of Toksport WRT, who are also happy to have their own funds. - Right now, nothing is nailed down. I'm working on next year, but I don't know if it will be in a Skoda or something else, he says.

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[Danny0405]

About Mikkelsen and Hyundai, I think the story is true because the leak in the news clearly sounds to come from Mikkelsen’s side (maybe not him directly) and I don’t see the point for them to criticize Hyundai for free in his situation looking for a Rally1 drive.

About Mikkelsen and Skoda, I think it a bit differently (I don’t think it’s a timing issue).
I really think that at the end of 2019, Skoda wanted to end its works program as a racing team and not anymore having pure works driver (even if supporting partially some but all manufacturers do so in Rally2); also because winning with a works driver, even more if he is a former WRC driver is not as good as winning with client or youngsters in terms of ad for the brand.
But as they lost all the big titles in 2020 (WRC-2 against Ostberg, WRC-3 against Huttunen and ERC against Lukyanuk), they thought they needed a former WRC driver to counter Ostberg and they took Mikkelsen (who didn’t have other serious offer considering he doesn’t to pay to drive). It works in 2021 and at the beginning of 2022, the young Toksport bunch was not reliable enough to bet all on them against Rossel, Suninen or potentially Ostberg. But as Toksport now has a driver with Rally1 experience (Lindholm) who can be considered as a reliable driver for Rally2, they don’t need anymore Mikkelsen whose WRC experience was hiding a bit the quality of the car in winning. As Mikkelsen doesn’t want to pay to drive, they know the risk is very low to see him as a competitor in 2023. Only risk Skoda takes in my opinion, now that Mikkelsen has missed Rally1 opportunity, is that Mikkelsen is hired by Toyota to help to develop the Rally2 car (if his Skoda contract was not including a non-competition clause, which is possible though because Mikkelsen had some early exit option to join Rally1 so probably there were some counterparts).
It is just an hypothesis but it’s how I see what happened between Skoda and Mikkelsen and I think the Hyundai stuff is not really linked with it (we know for a couple of months about Hyundai having cheated Mikkelsen so Skoda could have took him back).