Some of you may not have even been aware that Seat competed in the WRC, whilst some of you may have forgotten about them. If you fall into the latter category, let's remind you of their story.
Seat entered their first WRC event as a full blown factory team at the 1998 Rally Finland, only completing the final third of Tommi Makinen's 3rd title winning year. A large array of drivers competed for the Spanish outfit between 1998-2000, including 2 World Champions in the shape of Didier Auriol and Marcus Gronholm. In fact, during their 3 year manufacturer backed period the Seat team employed no less than 8 drivers (with some of them only competing in 1 event like Gronholm) including rally winner Harri Rovanpera, Toni Gardemeister and former British champion and dad of current WRC star Elfyn Evans, Gwyndaf Evans. The Seat Cordoba WRC was not a front runner in the WRC and never graced the top step of the podium. However, the team did achieve 3 third place finishes thanks to Gardemeister, Rovanpera and Auriol. Ultimately, the Seat campaign was not successful enough for the Volkswagen Group's liking. After just over 2 years competing at the top level, Seat pulled out of international rallying at the end of 2000. Their main drivers would ultimately go onto better things, with Rovanpera enjoying a successful spell at Peugeot for many years and Gardemeister driving for a number of factory teams. Seat did however provide a career stepping stone for the likes of Rovanpera and were part of a bumper WRC service park in 1999 which boasted 9 factory teams. Interestingly, every single year the team finished 5th in the constructors championship, although in 1998 there were only 5 registered teams. The Cordoba WRC came in 3 disguises, with the original Corodba WRC, the Cordoba Evo 2 WRC and the Cordoba Evo 3 WRC. Although not manufacturer backed, the car continued to appear on the world stage in 2001 for a few events although none of the 4 drivers who competed with the Cordoba managed to score a point. The car may not have been scorchingly fast, but it certainly looked the part.
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WRCArticles covering the World Rally Championship Archives
January 2018
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