With Citroen waiting for 2017 to relaunch their assault on the WRC title, Hyundai has a chance to make hay if Volkswagen allows the sun to shine
Don’t get too used to the way the cars currently look in the FIA World Rally Championship. An overhaul of the technical regulations will see the cars become wider, a little longer and slightly more technically sophisticated along with having more power as the turbo restrictor size is increased.
It is these changes that have prompted Citroen to withdraw their factory team for this season that will already be underway by the time you read this issue. While they prepare to build a car to handle the revised regulations though, they will still be fielding drivers in privately entered teams. Stephane Lefebvre moves up the pecking order to join Kris Meeke as the French manufacturer’s factory driver as it tries to make up for the retirement of the all-conquering Sebastien Loeb.
During this state of flux and with Ford also struggling following Mikko Hirvonen’s retirement. Hyundai has invested heavily to turn its new i20 WRC car from an ocassional visitor to the podium into a consistent winner.
Not having to modify the new car’s chassis to accommodate the 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder turbocharged engine – as was the case in the outgoing machine – has made the Korean manufacturer confident of being able to challenge their mighty German rivals from the outset.
CONSOLIDATING THE CROWN
The loss of VW’s motorsport director Jost Capito is unlikely to have an adverse effect on the team for this season as the development work for 2016 would have been set into motion early enough last year.
The focus for this year has been reliability for the reigning WRC champions as modifications to the gravel-spec rear suspension wishbones, and pistons have been made to achieve greater stability and to guard against engine failure.
Of course, the neutral WRC fan would love nothing more than to see Sebastien Ogier, Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen get pushed to the edge by Haydon Paddon, Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo. To the point that VW’s plans to maintain their lead over the chasing pack don’t exactly go to plan.
Ford, on the other hand (WRC’s third designated manufacturer team) will be just hoping that Mads Ostberg, Eric Camilli, Ott Tanak and Yazid Al-Rajhi can hang on close enough to VW and Hyundai to score decent points whenever the chance presents itself.
AWAY FROM THE LIMELIGHT
Away from the teams and drivers designated to score manufacturers points, Citroen and a second M-Sport car driven by former Formula 1 star Robert Kubica will gun for individual glory.
Kubica’s move to M-Sport, in particular, will be watched keenly by fans both in and outside of the WRC community as the Pole tries to go a step further than winning the WRC-2 title in 2013. Since his entry into the top category of world championship rallying, Kubica has posted the fastest time on 15 stages. Six of those have been on stages 20 km or longer including a 51.7 km stage at last year’s Monte Carlo Rally.
That indicates some promise for sure, but it has been a tough learning curve for Kubica. With the resources of M-Sport behind him though, hopefully he can take a step to sniping at the sharp end of the WRC pecking order, much as he used to do in F1.
His efforts and name recognition could lead to a good reception for the newly added China Rally for this season. The newly added round will be held on tarmac, which has suited Kubica better than gravel before on account of being more used to high grip than some of his peers.
At the end of the day, though, the story of the WRC season is likely to be one of Ogier further establishing himself as a future legend. Hyundai – after having tested its new car for over 8,000 km – hopes to have at least some of the answers to the sport’s new Sebastien. Fans who want to see the sport return to its era of popularity will certainly be hoping that’s the case.
Of course, if that doesn’t pan out, there’s always 2017 and the visually more spectacular cars and the return of Toyota and Citroen’s reboot to look forward to.
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