Official WRC thread

Looks like the next season is shaping up to be pretty awesome! Nice to see Block joining in as well. And I really really hope that Atkinson gets the other seat at the team because he really deserves it.

I wonder what he'll be driving in Rally America, though. From what I understand WRC cars are not eligible as such, so maybe they'll use a tuned up Fiesta like in X-Games...

Autoblog says that he will indeed use a modified Fiesta when racing in America.
 
FIA Announces Manufacturer Entries

Autosport said:
FIA announces manufacturer entries

By David Evans Thursday, January 7th 2010, 17:35 GMT

The FIA has confirmed three manufacturer entries for this year's World Rally Championship after entries for the series closed on Monday afternoon.

Two Citroen teams are listed, with six-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb leading the Citroen Total team while former Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen heads up the Citroen Junior Team with Sebastien Ogier named as his team-mate. Ford is represented by the BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team, with Mikko Hirvonen listed as the team leader.

Second drivers don't have to be nominated at this stage and can be changed on a rally-by-rally basis, although Dani Sordo (Citroen Total) and Jari-Matti Latvala (BP Ford Abu Dhabi) are expected to remain in place through this season's 13 rounds.

In addition to those three manufacturer teams, further WRC team entries are expected from Munchi's Ford for Federico Villagra, Stobart Ford for Matthew Wilson and Henning Solberg, Monster Ford for Ken Block and the Petter Solberg World Rally Team with Solberg himself driving a Citroen with Gigi Galli and or P-G Andersson alongside him. The closing date for WRC team entries is March 16.

The first WRC round of the season, the Swedish Rally, starts from Karlstad on February 11.

Most of that doesn't suprise me, apart from the sentence about the PSWRT.
 
I'm so amped for February 11 I can barely stand it.
 
oh shit, Petter + Gigi Galli?

Epic!!!
 
Looks like we need a quick wrap up then! There may only be two manufacturers but a heap of top line talent in the series which has been lacking for a while!

BP Ford:
Mikko Hirvonen
Jari-Matti Latvala

Citroen Total:
Sebastien Loeb
Dani Sordo

Citroen Junior:
Kimi Raikonnen
Sebastien Ogier

PSWRT
Petter Solberg
Gigi Galli

Stobart Ford
Matthew Wilson
Henning Solberg

Munchi's Ford
Frederico Villagra

Monster Ford
Ken Block
Chris Atkinson

You can bet private entries will be made from guys like Ostberg, Andersson etc. as well as the S-WRC cup. Looking like a good year!!
 
Good to see Gigi Galli is back from his off.

Hopefully Latvala will be more cautious this year.
 
Of course, there are few speculated entries on Necx0's list, but even if the four names I consider least likely (and I'm optimistic about those) that means about 10 WRC cars for the full year. Not bad at all...

And also there are six teams for the S2000 cup, which is a lot more than the 1 or 2 I expected. Looking forward to seeing who will be driving those cars...
 
Not directly WRC related but since we don't have an IRC thread (maybe one should be made..?), some picks from the entry list for next weekend's Monte Carlo Rally

Kris Meeke, Peugeot 207 S2000
Mikko Hirvonen, Ford Fiesta S2000
Jan Kopecky, Skoda Fabia S2000
S?bastien Ogier, Peugeot 207 S2000
Juho H?nninen, Skoda Fabia S2000
Stephane Sarrazin, Peugeot 207 S2000
Nicolas Voullioz, Skoda Fabia S2000
Toni Gardemeister, Fiat Punto S2000
Bruno Magalhaes, Peugeot 207 S2000
Guy Wilks, Skoda Fabia S2000
...
Robert Kubica, Renault Clio R3.

Full list here.

Certainly not a bad list, but actually a bit disappointing. Having Ogier and Hirvonen in the event brings up a good comparison on the relative paces between top WRC and IRC drivers (Ogier won Monte last year) but only one notable Punto entry for Gardemeister but no factory Fiats and no Proton either...

It'll be interesting to see how Robert goes in the Clio. It's only R3 class car which means he won't be anywhere near the top of the leaderboard but there are plenty of R3 cars on the list so some comparisons can be made...
 
Happy to see a bunch of STi's on that list!
 
Ken Block (founder of DC Shoes and driver for Subaru Rally Team USA) announced last week he's going into the WRC as part of the newly formed and Ford backed Monster World Rally Team. He'll also be contesting the Rally America Championship in a Ford Fiesta prepared by Olsbergs.

Part 1 of the 3 part interview:
[YOUTUBE]I38POigrZ-g[/YOUTUBE]

Transcript here:
http://www.drivingsports.com/site/2010/01/ken-block-interview-part-1/
 
Interesting list for the Monte. I think M-sport will consider anything less than total domination a disappointment. Hanninen, Kopecky, Wilks and especially Meeke will be licking their lips at the thought of taking it to a top level WRC driver though. If they out pace Mikko??

Pretty strong line up though should be a good event, hopefully it gets some decent coverage!!
 
There's loads of coverage for Monte on Eurosport. They had at least three broadcasts on their schedule for each day of the event when I checked a few days ago. Most of that propably finds it's way to the Internet as well.

A week after Monte there's another interesting event as the Arctic Lapland rally is held in Rovaniemi, Finland. It'll be Kimi R?ikk?nen's first event in the Citro?n C4 WRC, and Daniel Sordo has also been entered to the event.
 
For those interested, you can listen to live rally radio from Rallye Monte Carlo in this website. The first stage starts a few hours from now. At the moment they are replaying the broadcast from yesterday evening's prologue stage.
 
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BP Ford:
Mikko Hirvonen
Jari-Matti Latvala

I'll be supporting both Finns as usual : ) Mikko FTW :cool:

Citroen Total:
Sebastien Loeb
Dani Sordo

I seriously hope Ford & Petter will do some serious damage to both Citroen & Loeb. Can't wait for Mikko to wipe that smug smile off from Loeb's face.

Citroen Junior:
Kimi Raikonnen
Sebastien Ogier

Will be supporting Kimi, Seb will provide some LOL moments

PSWRT
Petter Solberg
Gigi Galli

Will be supporting both drivers : ) Petter FTMFW!!

Stobart Ford
Matthew Wilson
Henning Solberg

Supporting the good old Henning. Hopefully he can score a podium finish this year.

Munchi's Ford
Frederico Villagra

hey??

Monster Ford
Ken Block
Chris Atkinson

Will look out for Chris Atkinson(former Subaru driver), Block on the other hand will provide the ROFLMFAO moments.
 
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AFAIK neither Galli nor Atkinson will be participating at WRC level this year. Those were just persistant rumours. Petter is going it alone again, and it is he I will be supporting along with Mikko and, of course..Kimi!! :cool:
 
I have to say, the results don't tell the full story of the Ford's pace. On pace Sebastien Ogier was right up there with Mikko but Seb lost two minutes with a brief visit to a snow bank and that dropped him back on the results.

More drama this morning, Kris Meeke slipped off the road after hitting a patch of black ice on the first stage of the day and he's out of the event. That leaves Hirvonen in the lead with Juho H?nninen just under a minute behind and Voullioz and Ogier chasing the finns.
 
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