Photo Credit: Skoda Motorsport It's July, which means the football summer transfer window is now officially open and the World Rally Championship is taking a short break for the summer, with just under a month between last weekend's Rally Poland and round 8 of the championship, Rally Finland. In Formula 1 this time is often regarded as "silly season", with the rumour mill and gossip columns in full swing regarding driver movements for the following season. I thought then with the new look 2017 WRC just around the corner, and with the suspected rumour that teams may be allowed to run 3 manufacturer cars for the first time since 2003, I should take a look at the current WRC driver market and how it could look next year with potentially 15 factory seats available. VolkswagenThe triple world champions have been the class act of the WRC since they joined the sport in 2013, and will therefore have the most pressure to deliver top class machinery once again in 2017. However, with Marcus Gronholm testing their new machine as well as their current drivers, they should be in good hands. As well as having the best car, VW also have three of the best drivers in the championship who are all likely to stay for 2017. Sebastien Ogier, one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen, is well on his way to a fourth world title, and he will be partnered by rapid Finn Jari-Matti Latvala and the WRC's latest winner Andreas Mikkelsen. Should VW think about switching it up however, WRC2 contenders Skoda Motorsport, a sister company of Volkswagen, have two very talented drivers in their ranks in Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand. More on them later. HyundaiHyundai, like Volkswagen, have been ultra impressive since joining the World Rally Championship in 2014, and like Volkswagen they already have three competitive drivers on their books with two works cars and a second string team for the third driver. The team are an exciting prospect heading into 2017, as they have already proved they are capable of quickly building a competitive machine, with the car they entered the championship with already having been replaced by 2016's new-generation i20 WRC, and to add to this they have been developing the Hyundai i20 R5 which is to be homologated very soon. Their current three drivers Thierry Neuville, Hayden Paddon and Dani Sordo are all performing well this season, with the former two having each bagged a win for the team this year. As well as the Belgian, Kiwi and Spaniard, Hyundai have Dutchman Kevin Abbring to consider. The youngster has had a couple of outings in the WRC in 2016 in the older specification i20, but his primary role has been in developing the new R5 model, a car which is crucial for the outfit. This means Hyundai face a dilemma, as they won't want to lose Abbring to another team as he may become fed up of just receiving sporadic WRC drives. They could take the decision of handing him a full time drive, but this may mean displacing one of their current three drivers who are all performing well. However, Dani Sordo is in the autumn of his career so may be sacrificed to keep Abbring on their books, but Sordo's asphalt pace and wealth of experience may be key as the WRC enters the unknown in 2017. CitroenCitroen, the WRC's dominant force for the past decade, are one of the most interesting areas regarding the 2017 WRC driver market, with only one driver locked in to drive for the French marque in 2017 in their C3 WRC at this point in time. Kris Meeke is a fantastic driver to have and is set to lead the team, but with potentially just one seat up for grabs they have a tricky choice to make regarding who will partner him. The Abu Dhabi Total WRT are running DS3's on selected events in the 2016 WRC as Citroen concentrate on developing their new car for next year to make sure it's a VW beater, and Khalid Al Qassimi has handed drives to Meeke as well as Stephane Lefebvre and Craig Breen. It's a difficult choice, as both drivers proved in Poland that they are extremely talented youngsters with bags of potential, so ideally if the three car team proposal does go through they will sign both of them up. Both drivers are fast and reliable, with Lefebvre coming with a tad more WRC experience but Breen with a lot more actual experience, but if I were Citroen and I had to choose I would probably plump for Stephane Lefebvre as it makes more sense commercially with him and co-driver Gabin Moreau being a French crew. M-SportMalcolm Wilson's M-Sport may not have manufacturer backing, but Ott Tanak's scintillating run on Rally Poland proved that the Ford Fiesta RS WRC still has rally winning potential, with just a puncture denying the Estonian the chance of taking the car's first win since Jari-Matti Latvala on Wales Rally GB 2012. The Cumbrian outfit may well run just a two car team even if three are permitted given they don't have any manufacturer support from Ford these days, but the DMACK team will likely be present with Ott Tanak driving for the team. M-Sport are often associated with gifting opportunities to the sport's rising stars, having brought Jari-Matti Latvala, Markko Martin, Francois Duval, Elfyn Evans and now Eric Camilli into the sport's top level. Currently M-Sport have Mads Ostberg and the developing Eric Camilli driving for their works squad, with 2014 and 15 works driver Elfyn Evans driving the team's latest R5 Fiesta, the Evo, in the WRC2 support category and the British Rally Championship this season. Therefore if teams are allowed three cars then you would expect the consistent and reliable Ostberg to be teemed up with Camilli once more and Welshman Evans to join the fray after a year out of the sport's top level, but if they are to run two cars then Wilson most definitely has a dilemma on his hands. He won't want to lose Evans to a rival team, and the Brit is keen to get back into WRC machinery in 2017, and he definitely won't want to dump Camilli who he took a massive risk on as it looks to be paying dividends if recent results are anything to go by. Could Mads Ostberg be the one to make way? Well after a strong start to the season, his performances have been less than spectacular to say the least, but the Norwegian has plenty of experience and is capable of leading the team. However, he may need to show some strong speed in the second half of the 2016 season to convince Malcolm he deserves to stay and impress potential other teams. ToyotaPhoto Credit: Ricardo Oliveira The much anticipated return of one of the WRC's iconic teams of the '90s, Toyota, is not only great news for fans of the sport and its general health, but presents a great opportunity for rally drivers across the globe with more factory seats up for grabs. With four time World Champion Tommi Makinen at the helm, the Yaris WRC should be driven by talented drivers with Makinen's talent spotting potential. For the drivers, it could be the car where young guns get their chance to make a name for themselves and for a more experienced driver a chance to lead a team into something potentially great. So who will end up at Toyota? Juho Hanninen is a name that has been heavily linked, with the Finn having conducted some testing in the Yaris and bringing with him plenty of winning experience from the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, SWRC (now WRC2) and has had several WRC outings both in a Fiesta WRC in 2013 and for Hyundai in 2014 to boot. He therefore would be a great choice for Makinen, especially for the team's first year in the World Championship at least. Toyota are expected to run three Yaris WRC's in 2017, meaning there are two more seats available. These could be filled quite feasibly by a number of drivers, perhaps Mads Ostberg, Elfyn Evans, Craig Breen, Stephane Lefebvre or Kevin Abbring should they not find a factory drive at their respected associated teams in 2017. However, assuming they all stay with who they are connected to, whether it just be in a test and development role, there are a number of promising youngsters Toyota could look to recruit. And there are none better than Teemu Suninen. The Finn is just 22 years of age, and has won three WRC2 events this year, more than ex-WRC driver Elfyn Evans, in his Skoda Fabia R5. He currently sits just 5 points shy of Evans' championship lead. He is undoubtedly a star of the future, so although it may come quite early in his career, Toyota would benefit greatly in locking him in to their team, even if they just hand him a test and development role initially. Other drivers Toyota could grab are Skoda Motorsport's two drivers Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand. Both the Finn and the Swede have shown fantastic pace over the years and have picked up important championship titles with Lappi becoming 2014 European Rally Champion and Tidemand winning the 2013 JWRC, and holding the record for the longest jump at Colin's Crest in Sweden, in an R5 car! So those are some of my predictions, suggestions and observations regarding the potential WRC 2017 line up. But one thing is for sure; with five different makes of car in the championship for the first time in a decade and the new, more powerful, aggressive looking machines, the 2017 World Rally Championship season could be one of the best ever.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WRCArticles covering the World Rally Championship Archives
January 2018
Categories |