2006 WRC Drivers Market news

[Nick Koan]

http://www.crash.net/uk/en/news_view...d=4&nid=123090

Skoda drops out, but two private teams will be running Skoda's next year. Red Bull Racing will field on team and will only run ten events under the new 'Manufacturer 2' rules, which makes them eligible for Manufacturer points, but without the requirement to run all rallies. Andreas Aigner is signed to run in one of the two Red Bull cars. The other team will be based on Jan Kopecky, and he may be the only driver. Again, that team is only contesting 10 rounds.

[sperry]

No Skoda? I was really hoping we'd see McRae and Grist with a full time ride. Now is the time for Audi to bring the Quattro back into WRC.

[Nick Koan]

Yup, its looking pretty bleak with only Ford, Subaru and Mitsubishi.

Kronos (Citroen) should be competitive, though, and maybe the Skoda's will be too.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by nKoan

Yup, its looking pretty bleak with only Ford, Subaru and Mitsubishi.

Kronos (Citroen) should be competitive, though, and maybe the Skoda's will be too.

Make that "only Ford and Subaru".

Originally Posted by NYCshopper on NASIOC

Tokyo, December 14, 2005: Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has announced that it has decided to suspend participation in the FIA World Rally Championship series from 2006.

With the Mitsubishi Motors Revitalization Plan as a basis, MMC has made a solid start toward revitalizing its business operations. However, to strengthen and build upon this base, MMC realizes that it must focus management resources on the continued promotion of the revitalization plan.

Mitsubishi Motors hopes to return to the WRC Championship series from 2008, after the completion of the 3-year revitalization plan, which covers fiscal 2005 to 2007.

This decision however does not extend to MMC’s efforts in the Dakar Rally (commonly known as Paris-Dakar). Mitsubishi Motors will continue to compete in this event.

-- Starting with an overall championship in the Safari Rally in 1974, the Mitsubishi WRC Team has accomplished a spectacular 34 wins in the WRC series. The team won the drivers’ title 4 consecutive years from 1996 to 1999, and won the prestigious manufacturers’ title in 1998.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...php?p=11986444

But I can't seem to find any real information that confirms this.... just some posts on message boards. For all I know, this is total bullshit... but it wouldn't be the 1st time Mistubishi has just up and stopped competing in WRC.

[Nick Koan]

Yeah, seeing one new article isn't too assuring, especially when Mitsubishi's main motorsports pages makes no mention of the announcement. We will probably see the offical announcement tomorrow. The deadline to register is the 15th, and they still haven't made any driver announcements, so it's still fully plausibile that they are pulling out.

Sucks to see them go, but in better news, about 70% of the new Red Bull team (engineers and tech's mainly) will be ex-factory Skoda men. Hopefully they can continue their development (in a somewhat limited fashion) and to quote Petter Solberg, "To say that Sebastien Loeb is not in a factory car is bullshit. Guy Frequelin is still there, you know, engineers, mechanics, full-spec Michelin tyres, everything."

[Kevin M]

Go Petter.

[Nick Koan]

http://www.wrc.com/page/BreakingNews...755137,00.html

Confirmed...

[MattR]

Boy, how did the WRC go from full throttle to nothing in a few months. I'm not sure what to think of the coming season.

[Nick Koan]

The new Manufacturer 2 Class just got another team, Bozian racing, who will be running 307's for Henning Solberg and Manfred Stohl. They also picked up OMV as their main sponsor, who used to sponsor Kronos racing.

A lot of ex-Peugeot engineers and techs will be staffing this team as well.

[Nick Koan]

The list of teams registering for Manufacturer points has been released.

Offical Entrants:
KRONOS TOTAL CITROEN WRT (cars #1-2)
BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM (#3-4)
SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM (#5-6)
OMV-PEUGEOT NORWAY (#7-*
STOBART VK M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM (#9-10)*
RED BULL-SKODA TEAM (#11-12)*

*Denotes Manufacturer 2


M-Sport (who runs the official works Ford team) will run a 'B team' potentially with Matt Wilson and Kosti Katijamaki behind the wheel.

Toni Gartermesiter has a drive for Monte Carlo from Astra Racing running a Peugeot 307.

Oreca and PH Sport are both linked to run Citroen Xsara's but no driver announcements yet.

The Manufacturer 2 class is for privateer teams to enter for Manufacturer points. These teams can run the same cars as works teams, and are not required to run all 16 events (I believe the minimum is 10 events). They still go after the same championship (ie, there will not be a Manufacturer 2 cup at the end of the season), but running less events will theoretically but them out of contention anyway.

[Nick Koan]

Also, Gigi Galli has stated that he turned down an offer from Malcom Wilson to run the second Ford Focus to stay with Mitsubishi, shortly before getting the call from Mitsubishi telling him that they were pulling out of the 06 season

[MattR]

Ex-Mitsu Driver Gilles Panizzi and DTM champ from 04, Mathias Ekstrom will split the work with RedBull's 2nd Skoda.

They are only guranteed seats in the first two rounds of the season, Panizzi will handle tarmac duties at Monte, and Ekstrom will take on Rally Sweden.
http://www.speedtv.com/articles/rally/auto/21335/

[Nick Koan]

Originally Posted by MattR

Ex-Mitsu Driver Gilles Panizzi and DTM champ from 04, Mathias Ekstrom will split the work with RedBull's 2nd Skoda.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/rally/auto/21335/

Looks like only for Monte Carlo and Sweeden (respectively) so far. No long term signings yet.

Also, Matt Wilson got signed full time at the second Ford team.

[MattR]

I must have added that while you typed...

Anyway, I'm concerned that this WRC season is going to be so choppy and hard to follow, that interest will be WAY down. Not a good thing for the US market, as WRC fightsfor coverage on Tv yearly, a week season of viewers and WRC could go away from Speed. I know I'm having a hard time getting excited for the season, but of course I will give it a chance on hopes that the drivers will still shine from their privateer teams.

[Nick Koan]

Yeah, it doesn't look good.

But, on the other hand, if Subaru does well, they'll keep funding speed to show the WRC. Hopefully, it won't get to the point where Speed just axes it even with Subaru paying so much to air it.

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by nKoan

Yeah, it doesn't look good.

But, on the other hand, if Subaru does well, they'll keep funding speed to show the WRC. Hopefully, it won't get to the point where Speed just axes it even with Subaru paying so much to air it.

Really, I didn't know Subaru was paying off Speed to float the coverage. I've never heard of that before in motorsports... maybe I'm just living under a rock though.

[MattR]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Really, I didn't know Subaru was paying off Speed to float the coverage. I've never heard of that before in motorsports... maybe I'm just living under a rock though.

Not so much paying them off,, just running a TON of Legacy, wrx and tribeca comercials during the race coverage. Also, the "This broadcast brought ot you buy Subaru, the beauty of AWD"...tags. Just lots of advertising dollars.

[Nick Koan]

Well, paying off might be a bit strong. I didn't mean to imply some behind the sceens conspiracy. I doubt its a cloaked payoff to keep WRC coverage on the air.

But, Subaru is certainly a major sponsor for the events. From a purely business standpoint at Speed, it doesn't really matter how many viewers you have, but how many advertising dollars you get. As long as Subaru keeps supplying a majority of those dollars, there is no reason to pull WRC off the air, regardless of viewership.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

Really, I didn't know Subaru was paying off Speed to float the coverage. I've never heard of that before in motorsports... maybe I'm just living under a rock though.

You never noticed that there's a Subaru commercial every commercial break? Also the "WRC on Speed is brought to you by Subaru. Think. Feel. Drive." before each commercial break?

[Nick Koan]

Rumor mill says that Ralliart Italy will get the 05/06 Lancers from Mitsubishi and Gigi Galli will drive one of them.

Unfortunately, I think they will be too late in registering for Manufacturers points.

EDIT: found a link on an itallian site.

Link to the Google translation:
http://translate.google.com/translat...language_tools
Original article:
http://www.racingworld.it/rally/noti...?idtitolo=2072

[Nick Koan]

http://www.wrc.com/page/News/Breakin...794060,00.html

Not drivers market news, but the rumors of David Lapworth leaving the Prodrive part of SWRT were in fact true.

The Subaru World Rally Team announced today a shift in its management structure. David Lapworth is stepping down and will be replaced by Paul Howarth, who is now responsible for the operation and tehcnical aspect of the team. Lapworth will now take over a new position within Prodrive, working on a new project.

"I have worked with Subaru for a long time in the WRC and have been fortunate to be involved in many World Championship successes. I have very much enjoyed myself and it will not be easy to move from the Team, however I am confident that I am leaving a very strong technical team who will take Subaru forward to further success in the future. Personally I am looking forward to the challenge of my new role within the Prodrive organisation", said Lapworth.

Richard Taylor, SWRT's Managing Director added: "As one of the founding members of the team, David's contribution to its success over the past 17 years has been invaluable and we owe him a big debt of gratitude. In advance of this move, the team has, over the last four months, made a number of management and organisational changes, including significantly increasing the level of technical collaboration with Subaru in Japan. More and more effort is being devoted to the parallel development of Subaru road cars and the World Rally Car and we will see the benefits of this on both stage and road in the coming months and years. We have a formidable team of people and are very confident that we are fully equipped for the challenges ahead".

This announcement came only a week before the Corona Rally México, where last year's winner was Subaru ace Petter Solberg.

[Nick Koan]

No link, but more Lapworth rumor mongering.

Richards makes progress on new F1 team

By Jonathan Noble Monday, February 27th 2006, 14:31 GMT

Former BAR boss David Richards is believed to be close to giving the green light to launching his own Prodrive Formula One team for 2008, autosport.com has learned.

Sources have confirmed that Richards recently held talks with FIA president Max Mosley and F1 commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone to discuss the future framework of regulations planned for the sport after 2007.

It is the first indication that Richards' plans for a team are advancing behind the scenes - even though he has made no secret of the fact that he has been considering a return to Grand Prix racing for some time.

Although Richards has declined to comment on the latest developments, he did admit at the Autosport International Show in January that a move to F1 for Prodrive would make sense if new rules planned for 2008 made the sport more economically viable for independent teams.

"I would not say it is unfinished business, but Prodrive is a motorsport business and that is at the heart of everything that we do," he said.

"We are involved in most aspects of it, but we are currently not involved in F1 - although we do supply some components.

"I will only go there (into F1) when the situation allows us to be competitive and to make a profit - and the changes coming for 2008 might allow that to come to fruition."

There are suggestions that David Lapworth, who left his position as Performance Director of Prodrive's Subaru World Rally Team last week, will be involved in the F1 operation.

A report in this week's Autocar magazine also suggests that Prodrive will build a state-of-the-art factory for their F1 team at the former Honiley airfield near Warwick, which has been owned by the company since 1999.

Richards' ambitions for the team come at a time when Mosley is campaigning hard on behalf of independent teams – claiming they are the lifeblood of F1. Mosley admitted recently that Richards was 'serious' in his ambitions to launch an F1 team.

"David Richards is looking at it quite seriously, but I think that is a separate operation, he has put a whole operation together," said Mosley. "It would make sense."

[sperry]

Dear god, please let the F1 rules actually effectively lower costs to the point where Prodrive can race and succeed in the sport.

[tysonK]

Originally Posted by sperry

Dean god, please let the F1 rules actually effectively lower costs to the point where Prodrive can race and succeed in the sport.

Dear god...

Dean god sounds really funny though.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by tysonK

Dear god...

Dean god sounds really funny though.

Woops... I just got done sending an email to Dean and Mike about the Timing and Scoring computer... I wonder if that's how that happened?