Less than a month away for the start of a new WRC season, let us look into what to expect and look out for what the sport is pre...
Less than a month away for the start of a new WRC season, let us look into what
to expect and look out for what the sport is prepared to entertain us.
In the closing 2013 season, we
saw the evolution of a New WRC Machine and New Champions, VW Polo WRC and Sebastien Ogier, both making it large this season, and also marking the end of a 'Master' Loeb's era!
2014, the
most hot and interesting topic is that everybody being curious about what the re-entry of the Korean car maker.
Hyundai is all set to stir the competition at the World Rally scene. Being not the first time, their outing into Rallying was almost a decade back, and it makes all that difference in re-entering this time with an all new car, with new regulations and a new approach. We had seen the Accent WRC on the stages back then, but were not very successful.
Hyundai's comeback with a fresh n' new car, with striking colours - the i20 WRC. It is not just the car that is stirring the excitement, but also the driver line up feels a strong enough to challenge the new and old champions. The car evolved at an amazing pace, at the helm of Michel Nandan's directions and the latest tests of the car with the new drivers, seems blisteringly quick.
Hyundai is all set to stir the competition at the World Rally scene. Being not the first time, their outing into Rallying was almost a decade back, and it makes all that difference in re-entering this time with an all new car, with new regulations and a new approach. We had seen the Accent WRC on the stages back then, but were not very successful.
Hyundai's comeback with a fresh n' new car, with striking colours - the i20 WRC. It is not just the car that is stirring the excitement, but also the driver line up feels a strong enough to challenge the new and old champions. The car evolved at an amazing pace, at the helm of Michel Nandan's directions and the latest tests of the car with the new drivers, seems blisteringly quick.
Hyundai’s
main assault weapon is Thierry Neuville a.k.a “Belgian Bullet” on a full season program, who will be
accompanied by Spaniard Dani Sordo, Finn Juho Hanninen and Aussie driver Chris
Atkinson, who will be driving in selected events for the team in the second car.
Michel
Nandan, the boss of this young and dedicated team, they are hoping for some
realistic results this season as it will be a learning curve for them.
According to Michel Nandan, their primary goal is to bring home both the car
safely on each rally and gain some valuable experience and later in the season
even fight for podium finishes, which we can hope is possible. [Remember, it was the same old slogan of the VW team until almost till the championship was sealed.] All we can hope for is a good show
from Hyundai this season!
Well it was
all about Hyundai, its quite opposite when we come to Volkswagen camp. They are
still “Hungry” for success as recently stated by the team. We can see them
defending their titles both of course! They have already revealed that they
are going with same team as it was in 2013, so they don’t want to spoil the
winning combination and the winning run. So in this season too we can expect
Polo WRC’s to dominate the stages in hunt for their second title.
Multiple World Champions, Citroen World Rally Team have completely shuffled their driver lineup, while retaining the livery and sponsors intact from the recently completed season. British driver Kris Meeke & Norway's Mads Ostberg have been selected for their twin full season assault, while their external sponsor Abu Dhabi driver Khalid Al-Qassimi will be driving in selected events, while being on full season at Middle-Eastern Rally Championship.
Multiple World Champions, Citroen World Rally Team have completely shuffled their driver lineup, while retaining the livery and sponsors intact from the recently completed season. British driver Kris Meeke & Norway's Mads Ostberg have been selected for their twin full season assault, while their external sponsor Abu Dhabi driver Khalid Al-Qassimi will be driving in selected events, while being on full season at Middle-Eastern Rally Championship.
So there are
three works team, one is just born and, another is still evolving but both teams
very confident in their approach and the goals they have set.
Well I know
there is much more to speak about another factory squad and also about Blue
Oval, but its just the beginning, for now its too much to tell so lets
discuss in the next part. Untill then Happy Rallying!
No comments