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three
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VW en t er s WRC as the s po rt
takes an u ncer tain tu rn
By Mark Hacking | Photography by Volkswagen Motorsport
The WRC program
includes a threeyear timetable to
challenge for the
championship
and a total
investment of 30
million Euros.
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www.prnmag.com
M
onte Carlo, Monaco – Motorsport can be a
funny business, mainly because it’s such
a very costly business. Car manufacturers understand there is some benefit to
racing their product, but sometimes the benefits can
get lost in the shuffle – particularly during the long, slow
awakening from a global economic downturn. Given
how extreme the associated costs can be, brands can
be, ironically, very slow to enter the fray and very quick
to quit. In terms of motorsport involvement, the VW
Group is an interesting case. This global monolith has
wisely acquired a number of distinct car brands over
the years – Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT
and Skoda – all with very distinct identities and all of
which are involved in racing to one degree or another.
Corporately, the VW Group shies away from allowing its brand activities to overlap, so when it came
time to consider where to go racing with the VW
brand, a few options were automatically ruled out. For
example, despite rumours the VW Group was thinking of building an engine for use in Formula One,
the consensus is that any future Grand Prix activities would happen under the Porsche umbrella.
Ultimately, the decision was made to take VW offroad – and in a very big way. From 2009 to 2011, it has
contested the infamous Dakar Rally after it moved to
South America and it dominated, winning in all three
years. The tricky thing about Dakar, though, is that
manufacturer support fluctuates wildly. Prior to VW
sweeping all others aside, Mitsubishi did the exact same
thing, winning seven times in a row from 2001 to 2007.
Currently, the MINI brand is working on its own streak
having won the last two editions of this grueling contest.
But there’s not much marketing value to winning a rally if the competition isn’t up to snuff
– or isn’t there in the first place. Thus, the brand
turned its corporate attention to another form of
off-road racing: the FIA World Rally Championship. The early steps were tentative… but smart.
In 2011, Sebastien Ogier was snapped away from
the powerhouse Citroën team when the rising superstar
put too much pressure on his teammate, the sport’s
reigning king, Sebastien Loeb. For a full season,
Ogier did nothing but prepare for 2013, competing
in the S2000 class with a Skoda Fabia and putting
countless miles on the developing Polo WRC car.
Unconfirmed reports indicate the WRC program
includes a three-year timetable to challenge for the
championship and a total investment of 30 million
Euros. Whether these qualify as fact or fiction, there
seems little doubt that VW has entered the WRC to win.
The timing is either brilliant or disastrous, depending
on your point of view: The plan was already in motion
when the world of WRC underwent significant upheaval.
First, something was going seriously sideways with
the freshly-minted MINI factory rally effort as they
were preparing to start just its second season in 2012.
There was clearly some difference of opinion between
the manufacturer and the outfit hired to develop
the Countryman and run the team, David Richards’
Prodrive concern. At least some of that difference
of opinion seems to have come down to finances.
All of a sudden, what looked to be an up-and-coming
WRC entry was no more; MINI pulled its support from
its own factory team, leaving behind a gaggle of
“factory-supported” privateers, including Prodrive and
the talented Dani Sordo. At the end of 2012, when the
chance to return to a factory team came up, Sordo
jumped at it and found himself back at Citroën.
The change in status at MINI was then overshadowed by an even bigger development that reflected the
same type of decision in another manufacturer’s HQ.
After a 16-year run as a factory-backed outfit, Malcolm
Wilson’s M-Sport team lost its corporate partner; the
Ford Motor Company, with an eye towards the troubled
European economy, decided to withdraw from the WRC.
As with MINI, there will still be Ford rally cars in the
WRC, but they will be running on a drastically-reduced
budget. This decision sent further shockwaves through
the sport. Former world champion Petter Solberg was
again left without a factory drive after previously being
Whether these qualify
as fact or fiction, there
seems little doubt that
VW has entered the
WRC to win.
www.prnmag.com
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Minus three
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The plan was already
in motion when the
world of WRC underwent
significant upheaval.
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www.prnmag.com
let go when Subaru withdrew from the WRC in 2008.
But arguably the biggest shift of all took
place when another champion – the perennial
title-holder, Loeb – announced he was leaving
the sport. For the 2013 season, the Frenchman
announced plans to compete in a partial season consisting of just four rallies. In the world of
rallying, there is Sebastien Loeb… and there is
everyone else. He has won the last nine titles in
a row, a record of success unmatched by anyone in any form of professional motorsport.
The void created by his semi-retirement from
rallying would be enormous and everyone associated with the sport understood that the WRC was
entering a new era. The VW Group certainly knew
this to be the case: When it saw all the changes
taking place around them, they knew this was
an opportunity to strengthen its own team.
From the ashes of the Ford factory team, they
picked up a quick teammate for Ogier in Jari-Matti
Latvala. Early last year, they also secured the services of Jost Capito, former head of performance
vehicles and global motorsports for Ford. There’s
no word on whether Capito saw the writing on the
wall at Ford – and left while the leaving was good
– but there’s no question he’s an intelligent guy.
Fast forward to the second weekend of December 2012. At the behest of the VW Group, the
global media has descended on Monaco to witness
the unveiling of its brand new Polo WRC car, its
road-going derivative and the team tasked with
making everything come together as planned. The
glitzy event, which takes place in the principality’s famed Casino Square and includes guest
appearances by VW brand ambassadors Carlos
Sainz, Juha Kankkunen and Jacky Ickx, is proof
positive there’s some money behind the effort.
During separate interviews with Capito, Lat-
vala and Ogier, the tone of the conversation
varies. Ogier is an interesting case – he’s absolutely confident in his own abilities as a rally
driver and has big expectations for the season.
“Of course, we want to win and that’s the target,”
he says. “But if I’m in the top-five, I will be happy.
And if I’m on the podium, I will be very happy.”
For the young rally star, spending the past year
developing the Polo WRC car was a challenge: “It
was a bit difficult to get the motivation sometimes,
but I think it was the right decision not to race the
Polo (in 2012). Ten months of driving the car without
(outside) reference – this can lead to getting comfortable in the car and going in the wrong direction.”
Part of that much-needed reference will come
from new recruit Latvala, who admitted to the
media that last year’s Ford was good enough to
win the title, but he couldn’t get the job done.
The disappointment in the way his time at Ford
ended is palpable for Latvala; he believes Ford
deserved at least one championship during Loeb’s
reign and he’s crushed he could not deliver it.
The main question now is whether Latvala
can pull it together and become the VW team
leader. “Sebastien has a big passion to win, for
sure,” the Finn reports. “ But I have a big passion to win as well. Ford did well for me, but there
was always a limitation. The biggest difference
now is we have the budget to run the program.”
For his part, Capito is in charge of managing expectations. With the changes in WRC, the
door is open for a new factory team to step up
and dominate; Citroën may still be there, but its
main asset has been Loeb and no one believes
Mikko Hirvonen will dominate in the same fashion. But the fact remains that VW is still a brand
new team and Capito lays out a three-year plan
that includes podium finishes by the end of 2013,
fighting for wins by the end of 2014 and battling for the championship by the end of 2015.
Capito also spoke about the rationale behind
the move away from the Dakar Rally and into
the WRC: “Dakar is just one event in one part
of the world and the WRC is 13 events over the
course of the year in 13 different countries. For
a brand with a small global car such as the Polo,
the WRC is a much more significant platform.”
In Monaco, the company also revealed the VW
Polo R WRC, a 220-horsepower version of its small
hatchback that will be made available to only 2,500
customers around the world. VW also launched an
ambitious promotional campaign linked to its WRC
involvement; details can be found at rallytheworld.
com. Long story short, the VW Group believes the
WRC is a great platform for promoting its vehicles,
and the undiscovered gem of the motorsport world.
It will be very interesting to see how this season
in the WRC plays out and how the new VW team
fares against its more experienced competition.
The early signs indicate it will be a banner year:
Ogier notched a win and a second place in the
first two rounds to grab an early three point lead
in the championship over Loeb. Time will tell if
this result convinces Loeb to reverse his decision
to retire outright, which could impact VW’s plan
of winning a WRC championship altogether.