After four years of domination, VW quits WRC to focus on "future tech"

The dieselgate culls come thick and fast. A week after Audi called time on its hugely successful stint in endurance racing, Volkswagen has ended its stint in world rallying.

A stint which has seen it win 42 of the 51 rallies it entered, leading to both driver and manufacturer titles for the last four years. The latest trophies arrived just a few days ago during the penultimate round of WRC 2016, in Wales. The final round in Australia, later this month, will host VW’s exit from the sport.

“The Volkswagen brand is facing enormous challenges,” said VW board member Frank Welsch, while addressing his company’s motorsport employees. “With the upcoming expansion in electrification of our vehicle range we must focus all our efforts on important future technologies.

“We far exceeded our sporting goals in the WRC, now we are realigning Volkswagen Motorsport and moving the vehicle technology of the future more starkly into focus. At the same time, Volkswagen is going to focus more on customer racing. As well as the Golf GTI TCR on the circuit track and the Beetle GRC in rallycross, we also want to offer customers top products and will develop a new Polo according to R5 regulations.”

So there’s still going to be a VW Polo rally car, just not a factory supported Polo R that will clean up on the world stage. Which given the freer regulations that are yielding wildly styled new WRC entrants, is a bit of a shame. Welsch went on to guarantee the security of employees at Volkswagen Motorsport, whose attention will shift to developing the Polo R5 and supporting VW’s other customer racecars.

Where it leaves the drivers and co-drivers hasn’t been confirmed. But you can bet the employment status of Sebastien Ogier - winner of the last four WRC seasons behind the wheel of a Polo - will be at the forefront of other WRC teams’ minds as they prepare for 2017.

“We regret the departure from the WRC very much – as this was the most successful chapter in the Volkswagen brand’s motorsport history,” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets.

“The team has done great things. At the same time, our vision is firmly ahead, because we are aware of the great challenges facing the entire company. We want our realignment to contribute to the success of the Volkswagen brand. From now on, the focus is on upcoming technologies in motorsport and on our customer sports range, where we will position ourselves more broadly and attractively.”

Lots of talk of the future, but does it ease the pain of leaving WRC? Do you think VW should have found the cash to continue?

Toyota World Rally Championship team principal Tommi Makinen is ready to make a Yaris WRC available for Ferrari Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen to test.

Raikkonen's F1 future is uncertain as Ferrari leans towards replacing him with Charles Leclerc for 2019.

Though Autosport understands from well-placed sources that recent stories linking Raikkonen to a WRC return with Toyota were "completely blown up", Makinen has made clear the door is open for a test.

"He hasn't tested anything now, but why not?" he told Autosport.

"If he wants to drive the car I can let him, no question."

Makinen ran Raikkonen when he contested a selection of Finnish and Italian events ahead of his WRC Rally Finland outing in 2009.

"I know how he is driving. He drives very well, he's not crazy," four-time WRC champion Makinen added.

Raikkonen focused on the WRC during his F1 sabbatical in 2010-11, with a best finish of fifth in Turkey in his first season.

He has previously talked about the potential for a future return to rallying and is understood to be particularly keen to test a new generation World Rally Car.

Current Toyota WRC sporting director Kaj Lindstrom was Raikkonen's co-driver in all his rally outings.

"You know Kimi, when we drove before he said we would do a few rallies in the Fiat..." Lindstrom told Autosport, referring to how the low-key outings in an S2000 Abarth in 2009 preceded a full-time WRC switch.

"He hasn't said anything yet. He might say he wants to do one rally or something and it would be interesting to see him in the car, but nothing has been talked about."

Lindstrom said if Raikkonen "would like to do one rally" with Toyota "it would be easy for him to do that" as "Tommi has said he's an interesting person".

But he warned against expectations getting carried away.

"Tommi knows him well and Kimi knows me well," said Lindstrom.

"But this kind of story has to be really careful. If we say anything then it goes on and suddenly [it is written that] we have Kimi in the car and in the team for the whole season.

"This kind of thing can get a little bit silly."

Five-time WRC champion Sebastien Ogier said Raikkonen coming back would be good for rallying.

"If he wants to [come back], then I am sure he can be good," Ogier told Autosport.

"It's just a question of whether he wants to - we know he's not a big worker.

"But a name like Raikkonen is never bad for the sport, that's for sure."

Ogier, Raikkonen's 2010 team-mate at Citroen Junior, warned that he would find the WRC cars have moved on considerably in his absence.

"We remember when he came several years ago, he struggled and now, after being out [of rallying] for some time, it won't be easier - especially now as I feel the level is even higher than when he was there before," Ogier added.

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas will kick off his 2019 season by making his competitive rallying debut in Finland in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta World Rally Car.

Bottas will contest the Arctic Lapland Rally from January 24-26 in a Fiesta similar to the one used by Sebastien Ogier to win the last two WRC titles.

His co-driver will be Timo Rautiainen, who navigated Marcus Gronholm to WRC crowns in 2000 and 2002.

“This is a unique opportunity to take a peek into the world of rallying, and I would like to thank everyone who has made it possible,” said Bottas.

“It’s totally new territory for me too, as I have no prior experience of a World Rally Car. Still, being the race car driver that I am, you always go flat out whatever the vehicle you’re driving in.”

Bottas will continue a long tradition of Finnish F1 drivers contesting the Arctic event.

World champions Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen have all taken part before, as has ex-McLaren and Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen.

Bottas’s entry is being billed as ‘Flying Finn – Mission in Lapland’, as part of a Finnish rally driver development programme by AKK Motorsport.

Rautiainen, whose WRC record alongside Gronholm includes 30 victories and 61 podiums from 144 starts, has remained involved in rallying in recent years in an official capacity.

“This is such an interesting mission that I just had to accept the challenge,” said Rautiainen. “I believe that for a talented wheelman like Valtteri, we’ll be able to establish a good basic driving routine in testing.

“The challenging part of course will be learning the ins and outs of pace note making and learning to drive with pace notes all at once.”

Bottas’s rally debut takes place three weeks before pre-season testing begins for the 2019 F1 season.

Nine-time world champ will compete part-time in an i20, starting at Monte Carlo

Sebastien Loeb really doesn’t know how to retire. After leaving top flight rallying in 2012 – following a record-breaking nine consecutive world titles – he’s returning yet again in 2019 with Hyundai.

Loeb made three guest appearances for former employer Citroen in 2018, clinching them a nowadays all-too-rare victory at Rally de Espaņa and making the younger pack of championship-chasing drivers look a bit red-faced.

Clearly he fancies a bit more of that, and will contest six races for Hyundai next year. So no, he won’t be adding a tenth world title, but he could yet again stand on podiums that you’d rightly expect to be filled by drivers comfortably his junior.

“Right now, given how the rally panned out, I’d be tempted to say it’s perhaps my greatest win,” Loeb said after that win in Spain back in October. “It was an almighty scrap, right to the bitter end. When I saw I had won on the display at the end of the final stage, it was a truly incredible feeling.”

One the Frenchman’s clearly keen to replicate, signing a two-year contract at Hyundai with six rallies lined up in 2019, with the iconic season opener in Monte Carlo first up. It’ll be the first time we’ve seen Loeb compete in WRC from behind the wheel of something other than a Citroen.

He replaces Kiwi Hayden Paddon in Hyundai’s roster of drivers, which includes Thierry Neuville and Andreas Mikkelsen as full-time drivers and Dani Sordo on a part-time basis.

“I am delighted to announce that co-driver Daniel Elena and I will compete in six WRC events for Hyundai Motorsport in 2019,” Loeb said.

“Winning at Rally de Espaņa re-ignited my desire to continue competing at the very front of WRC. Joining Hyundai will give us a fresh challenge and one that I can’t wait to tackle. I have been impressed with the team’s approach and their determination to succeed.”

Some people just don’t know when to quit…

Perhaps because the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 wasn't ready until 1984, in 1982, Peugeot Talbot Sport homologated the 504 Pickup for Group B.

Peugeot 504 sedans and coupés did participate in various African rallies throughout the late seventies, but with its 2-liter engine, long wheelbase and live rear axle, this global workhorse didn't look promising.

No matter. The Peugeot 504 Pickup got certified for Group B until 1989.

And how about the 1983 Datsun Sunny Pickup with its 1170cc engine?

Somehow, this has also failed to spawn a Kevlar-bodied, mid-engined prototype.

But Nissan gave it a go, just in case.

Last but not least, there was the 1983 Subaru MP-1 Utility, the rally BRAT. Its papers were valid until the end of 1999.

Not much is known about the MP-1, except that next to all those Leone XR Turbos, privateer Ron Shapley entered a non-turbo 1.8 into both the 1985 and 1986 Rally New Zealand, only to leave with a class 4th, and then a 2nd. Despite having AWD, he got beaten by a Lada VFTS.

Rally is a pretty down-to-earth sport. It’s not pushing the boundaries like Formula One tries to do, and it’s not introducing totally new concepts like Formula E. But FIA President Jean Todt is expressing his frustrations with how slowly technology in the World Rally Championship is progressing.

“I’m completely in favour of taking into account the evolution of motoring for rallying,” Todt told Motorsport.com. He continued:

The current five-year homologation cycle in the WRC runs from 2017-2021. That means that, in 2022, regulations can change. FIA rally director Yves Matton has stated that we scan expect the new regulations to come out sometime this year—but whether it’s full electrification or hybridization is yet to be determined.

WRC might be feeling some pressure to up their electrification game in the face of a hell of a lot of new EV tech—including the new series, Extreme E. While Extreme E isn’t a rally in the traditional sense, it’s going to draw on the things that make rallying fun—like challenging off-road courses—while innovating the format in order to create a documentary.

It makes sense that WRC might feel like they need to show that they, too, can successfully experiment with EV technology and prove that they can still create the racing we know and love.

The World Rally Championship’s highest class will move to incorporate hybrid electric drive in two seasons time. The rule change will initially feature what the rulemakers are calling a “supplementary hybrid system” with spec components and software as a transitional stage from 2022 to 2025. Following that, regulations will open up for more electric power assist options.

The current aim of the move to hybrid is to provide the cars an ability to run in full EV while driving through transit stages through cities, and provide an as-yet-undefined power boost on special stages.

The best part of all of this, in my opinion, is that the car can run in full EV for at least some amount of time. That means it could potentially save a car from retirement by running back to the paddock on EV power to fix a blown turbo or mangled transmission or something. More cars in the mix are always good.

With many racing series taking on hybrid power, including IMSA, IndyCar, and potentially even NASCAR, it’s not surprising that manufacturers have been putting pressure on WRC to include hybrid electric in its power mix. In fact, Citroen allegedly threatened to leave the series altogether without a path to hybrid.

Personally, I’m excited to see more hybrid race cars coming to fruition. Electric boost is the future of racing. That said, this seems to be nothing more than a half measure to me, and somewhat disappointing. These manufacturers in WRC are capable of producing a strong EV unit, and WRC should not have half-assed this roll out. Hybrids first showed up at Le Mans two decades ago, and have been dominating proceedings for the latter half of that. Surely WRC could have dove in with both feet and really made a splash.

Other new regulations include a reduction in costs by freezing tire development from 2021 through 2024, which will prevent an expensive tire war. There is also a provision to allow manufacturers to “scale” a body down to within the prescribed limits of WRC, allowing the marketing benefit of WRC to work with larger cars. As superminis like the Fiesta, Yaris, and i20 fall out of favor with customers, manufacturers likely want to market their more popular mid-sized cars.

The full 2020 WRC calendar decision was deferred for another two weeks, and will be announced later in June.

FORMULA 1 STAR VALTTERI BOTTAS TESTED TOYOTA’S YARIS WORLD RALLY CAR LAST WEEK, PROMPTING FURTHER SPECULATION THE MERCEDES DRIVER COULD BE ON THE VERGE OF ANOTHER RALLY OUTING.

The 29-year-old impressed on his debut in a rally car when he stepped aboard a Ford Fiesta WRC and finished fifth in January’s Arctic Rally.

Having driven M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s car, Bottas fancied a taste of something more local, so contacted fellow Finn and Toyota Gazoo Racing boss Tommi Mäkinen to ask if it would be possible to test the Yaris.

Once Toyota regulars Ott Tänak, Kris Meeke and Jari-Matti Latvala were done with their Neste Rally Finland preparations, Bottas was given the all-clear to drive the car for a day.

He tested on roads close to Jyväskylä, near the team base. TGR sporting director Kaj Lindström joked there would be no late entry fourth car for this year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix winner.

“There is no contract,” said Lindström. “He was happy in the Arctic Rally, but we have the best car and he wanted to try it. The test with Valtteri was planned and he just drove the test car after the other guys at a road close to Jyväskylä.”

Like the Arctic Rally, Bottas was co-driven by Timo Rautiainen, who won two world championship titles alongside Marcus Grönholm.

Bottas (right) and co-driver Rautiainen are pictured with Toyota Gazoo Racing boss Mäkinen.

Valtteri Bottas has revealed that during a test in a Toyota Yaris WRC in Finland he matched World Rally Championship event winner Kris Meeke’s time on his first day driving on gravel

Towards the end of last month Bottas was given permission from Mercedes to go and try out Toyota’s WRC car in his home country between the British and German Grand Prix’s.

The Finn had entered his first rally event during the winter break and claims it “feels good” and is “always going to be a benefit.”

Five-time rally winner Meeke had been on the same stage that Bottas before and the Finn revealed that his pace was the same as his and loves the feeling of not having pressure in the car.

Bottas said to Crash.net: “I think they were happy. By the end of the day I managed to be on the same pace as Kris Meeke, who had been sometime earlier on that same stage.

“That was quite encouraging for a first day in gravel.

“It's completely different.

“New experiences always feel amazing. Obviously I would imagine if you do rally all the time, for sure you kind of get used to it.

“When you try something else, it feels very cool and new.

“This kind of [rally] thing, you go there and have fun with no people around, not a single kind of pressure from outside or from yourself.”

Citroen Racing has confirmed it will depart the World Rally Championship with immediate effect, stating Sebastien Ogier’s decision to move to Toyota left it with no alternative.

The FIA is considering a revised plan for the World Rally Championship's future if the manufacturers fail to sign up for 2022 when hybrid technology is set to be introduced.

Regulations governing the introduction of hybrid technology will be delivered in December and gives the teams the first quarter of 2020 as to whether they will continue.

Current teams Hyundai, Toyota and M-Sport Ford are known to be pushing ahead on a hybrid World Rally Car, but none can give the final sign-off until the regulations are published.

Should the FIA's April deadline not be met, rally director Yves Matton says the governing body has time to revise its plans for 2022.

"The teams have to commit by April," Matton said. "This gives us an opportunity, if they do not commit in April, then we can work on a new strategy, and it would give us more than 18 months to be sure to achieve what I want."

One potential strategy could be to use the R5 as the platform for a radically cheaper new World Rally Car run with an alternative fuel.

"The manufacturers request this kind of car we have for the moment," said Matton. "I have some quite positive feedback for 2022.

"We ask this question at all of our meetings: how do we reduce the cost involved?

"We are working together to keep this at the best level possible while maintaining the technologies they request.

"The feedback is that we need this kind of car, and we need to do the best we can to keep them as cost-effective as possible, but this high-level of technology comes at the cost."

Matton confirmed there would be no cost-saving on the horizon with 2022's new regulations.

"We never say we will cut the cost," said Matton. "What we have to do is work to maintain the cost to the same level - it's not possible to bring hybrid and reduce the cost.

"The only way to reduce the cost would be to go to an R5-based championship, but it's not what the manufacturers want for the top-level car."

But R5 category cars remain at heart of the FIA's plans to develop manufacturer interest in the series.

"We have the target for 2023 to have 20 manufacturer-supported cars competing regularly in the world championship," he added.

"I don't say 20 World Rally Cars, we know that's impossible - the maximum we ever achieved was 16 or 17.

"But working with the WRC2 and WRC3 categories for next year, this is when we start to see more cars supported by the manufacturers, and we will see more interest in this next year.

"We want a pro-am championship, but if we say we go to an R5 [World Rally Car] then the manufacturers will not follow.

"We need to have a balance between the top cars and some cars supported by the manufacturers from the lower categories."

Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas claimed his first win in rallying in the Paul Ricard-based Rallycircuit Cote d'Azur.

Bottas, driving a Citroen DS3 World Rally Car as one of five entrants in WRC-spec machinery, topped five of the nine stages and finished the event 50 seconds clear of his nearest rival, sometime European Rally Championship driver Robert Consani who was driving a Skoda Fabia R5.

Consani had held a narrow lead after the seven-kilometre opening stage, but Bottas took over out in front after the off-circuit second stage and methodically increased his lead from there.

He was virtually assured of the win on the penultimate stage, a 24km multi-lap run of one of Paul Ricard's shorter configurations, in which he nearly doubled his lead over Consani.

Consani's fellow Fabia R5 driver Dorian Boccolacci, an ex-Lotus F1 junior and Formula 2 regular, completed the podium, ahead of GT racer Simon Gachet in a Citroen C3 R5.

Former Citroen WRC driver Stephane Lefebvre claimed a pair of stage wins in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

He ultimately slipped behind Gachet into fifth place in the overall classification on the final stage.

Another circuit, Monza, also hosted its traditional Monza Rally Show this weekend, with WRC regulars Dani Sordo, Craig Breen and Andreas Mikkelsen on the entry list.

In the absence of MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, who won the past four editions, 2019 event honours went to Italian rally driver Andrea Crugnola, who beat Sordo by 11s over eight stages.

Rally Sweden will go ahead next week albeit eight stages shorter, despite the World Rally Championship event suffering from "unreasonably warm weather" and a lack of snow in the build-up.

Event organisers had set a deadline of February 3 for making a decision on whether the rally would go ahead after a lack of snow build-up on the stages, but extended that deadline until one day later.

Now the decision has been made that the event will go ahead, with around 180kms of stages although the final itinerary is still to be confirmed.

Friday's stages will be repeated on Saturday. Two of the four stages on those days will be in Norway, with Sweden suffering the most cut mileage in the revised itinerary.

The Likenas test is the only stage on Sunday, the second running of which will be the powerstage.

"It's fantastic to be able to confirm Rally Sweden will go ahead," said event CEO Glenn Olsson.

"Many people have worked extremely hard over the last few days so that we can reach this position, and I'm delighted that fans, TV viewers and competitors will be able to enjoy one of the WRC's most spectacular and fastest fixtures.

"We will welcome fans into the forests as planned. Those who are unable to attend the event in person will be able to enjoy live global TV coverage on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the live streaming of all stages on WRC+ All Live."

In a statement released on its website late on Tuesday evening, the event confirmed that FIA sporting delegate Timo Rautiainen had inspected the tests to check conditions.

It added that his report was discussed by Rally Sweden organisers, the FIA, WRC Promoter and teams on Tuesday and "a route proposal has been agreed".

The statement added: "The rally will include competitive action on all four days as originally scheduled, with a modified itinerary to be finalised by organisers."

The event organiser has already cancelled the Historic Rally which runs adjacent, which was won last year by 2003 WRC champion Petter Solberg.

Rally Sweden updated itinerary (all times GMT)

Thursday
0801hrs Shakedown (4.48 miles)
1908hrs SS1 Karlstad 1 (1.18 miles)

Friday
0742hrs SS2 Hof-Finnskog 1 (13.21 miles)
0908hrs SS3 Finnskogen 1 (12.85 miles)
1108hrs SS4 Nyckelvattnet 1 (11.77 miles)
1400hrs SS5 Torby Sprint 1 (1.74miles)
Friday total mileage 40.75 miles

Saturday
0742hrs SS6 Hof-Finnskog 2 (13.21 miles)
0908hrs SS7 Finnskogen 2 (12.85 miles)
1008hrs SS8 Nyckelvattnet 1 (11.77 miles)
1400hrs SS9 Torby Sprint 2 (1.74miles)
Saturday total mileage 40.75 miles

Sunday
0908hrs SS10 Likenäs 1 (13.17 miles)
1118hrs SS11 Likenäs 2 powerstage (13.17 miles)
Sunday total mileage (26.33 miles)
Event total mileage (106.65 miles)

The FIA has confirmed the appointment of Compact Dynamics as the exclusive supplier of hybrid systems to the World Rally Championship from the 2022 season.

The FIA launched an invitation to tender last year for the 2022‐2024 seasons when the next generation of Rally1 vehicles are introduced.

FIA rally director Yves Matton has previously told Motorsport.com that the hybrid systems will only be fitted to manufacturer WRC entries.

The decision to award the contract to Compact Dynamics was approved by the FIA World Council via a special e-vote.

The German company is a part of the Shaeffler Group that has a well-established technical partnership with Audi.

A specialist provider of drive systems and motor generator units (MGUs), the company has supplied the Mercedes Formula 1 team and Audi's Formula E programme.

Matton told Motorsport.com last year that the hybrid system would be used on road sections and partly on special stages but at the discretion of the organisers so as to avoid increasing the average speed.

Among the other items discussed by the World Council were provisions for Rally1 engine technical regulations to retain the same base engine as the current WRC cars, but with measures to reduce costs.

The full technical regulations for Rally1 have yet to be published, with the delay thought to be because of the need to compromise between the different marketing aims of the WRC's remaining manufacturers and the FIA's desire to ensure costs are as tightly controlled as possible.

This will be partly achieved through the development of a common survival cell to all cars, developed by the FIA, which together with the hybrid system it is hoped would facilitate the entry of more manufacturers to the championship.

The proposed ruleset was blasted Hyundai's Thierry Neuville in Mexico, with the Belgian suggesting the "shit" plans for "R5-plus" would not interest him.