The Monte Carlo Rally, fondly referred to as ‘The Monte’, is resuming its rightful and traditional position as the first WRC event of the year. Yesterday the top WRC teams were out in Valence giving their machines a final shakedown before taking on the full rally.
You can read previews from Citroën, Ford, MINI and Volkswagen at their official websites. Volkswagen? Yes, even though the Polo WRC won’t make its debut until next year the team’s lead driver Sebastien Ogier will be competing in 2012 for stablemates Skoda in the SWRC category.
We anticipate this season with renewed interest thanks to the introduction of MINI as a major player. Although, thanks to what appears to be a fractured relationship between MINI and Prodrive, it’s perhaps not as major as we would all like it to be. We believe the budget issues facing the MINI WRC team are due to BMW redirecting part of the team’s funding towards their return to DTM racing.
Hopefully Prodrive can secure enough sponsorship to put Kris Meeke back in his seat, and with Volkswagen to follow next year, it will be great to see up to four teams competing for outright honours in 2013.
Video of the shakedown in Valence can be seen after the break.
2 replies on “WRC teams shake it down before full Monte”
the mini at about 1:22 sounds like its got some off throttle magic going on or something
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