Category: WRC

It’s one week until Rally Sweden and Autosport brings word that the BMW Group is expected to terminate its contract with Prodrive later today. This news brings the future of the MINI WRC program into question.

A BMW Group source has allegedly revealed, “There was a chance this might have happened last year, but in the end it was decided to wait until after Monte Carlo. The decision has now been taken at board level and will be communicated in due course.”

When contacted by Autosport, Richard Taylor from Prodrive claimed, “That’s news to me. There’s no question of that, no question at all. The team is on its way to Sweden for the pre-event test as we speak. MINI remains committed to the programme and to supporting customers.

“We all want to see the MINI John Cooper Works WRC out there on the stages and that’s what we will see with Prodrive running the cars on Rally Sweden next week.”

You’ll recall Kris Meeke is currently on the sidelines after the team didn’t have the funding to keep him on a full-time basis. His seat is being sold to teh highest bidder on a race-by-race basis.

The unease of the BMW–Prodrive relationship is now becoming clearer and it’s understood finances have been central to those difficulties almost since the relationship began.

It’s believed BMW is now deciding if it should hand over the running of the team to another firm, with an Italian group supposedly in the frame, or quit the WRC altogether.

[Source: Autosport]

After something of a false start when they missed the registration deadline for the 2012 WRC season, MINI will be ready to field two cars at this week’s Monte Carlo Rally (17–22 January).

There’s no good news for Kris Meeke, though, who will miss the first two races, at least, to cashed up drivers able to help cover the budget shortfalls faced by the MINI–Prodrive partnership. Frenchman Pierre Campana will be at the wheel for the Monte and Swedish driver Patrik Sandell will take the seat for Rally Sweden (9–12 February).

In other garage news for the MINI WRC team Prodrive Chairman Dave Richards will no longer hold the role of team principal. Dave Wilcox, Prodrive technical director, will takeover the head role.

“It was always my intention to take a step back in the team’s second season and pass the responsibility over to Dave,” said David Richards, chairman of Prodrive. “During the last year he has proved he has all the right skills to lead the team and I have no doubt the MINI WRC Team will continue to go from strength to strength under his leadership.”

Obviously the Monte Carlo Rally is a special event for MINI, following three wins in 1964, 1965 and 1967. It’s just a shame their return hasn’t quiet begun in the most ideal circumstances. Dani Sordo showed some great promise in the limited program run by MINI last year; who knows, perhaps a fairytale win could be on the cards.

MINI WRC driver pairing of Kris Meeke (pictured left) and his co-driver Paul Nagle have been dropped, Autocar reports. At this stage the shock decision has not been officially confirmed and Prodrive chairman Dave Richards has been unavailable for comment.

It’s understood MINI and Prodrive have struggled to find enough sponsorship to keep Meeke/Nagle in their roles for 2012. The Irish duo still have two years remaining on their contract. The status of lead driver Dani Sordo (pictured right) remains unaffected and he will drive in all 12 races next year.

Apparently MINI will auction off their second car to the highest bidder on an event-by-event basis. It is hoped Meeke and Nagle will remain with the team behind the scenes and could return to competition if enough funding can be raised.

It’s the second blow for MINI and Prodrive following the news before Christmas that the team had missed the deadline to lodge their official entry for the 2012 season. Perhaps we now have a reason why.

[Source: Autocar]

MINI has missed the deadline for official entry into the 2012 WRC series, Autosport reports.

It’s not immediately clear who is to blame for the oversight, but it seems to be the Munich side of the BMW–Prodrive relationship. As you would expect both parties are now desperately trying to come to a new agreement with the FIA to remedy the situation.

A BMW source commenting on the slip-up has said, “We have made two podiums already in the development year, we can’t fail but to be very happy with what we are achieving. There are a few things to talk about and time has beaten us on the deadline, but the cars will be in Monte Carlo—we couldn’t miss the MINI’s return to that rally.”

There is speculation that the BMW–Prodrive relationship is under some stress, this mistake won’t help things greatly. From the FIA’s point of view they would be foolish to cause MINI any long-term pain over this, hopefully, minor drama.

In other news, both Ford and Citroën managed to keep their paperwork in order and are officially confirmed for the WRC in 2012.

[Source: Autosport]

MINI and Prodrive returned to the world rally stage with their Countryman WRC this year. In a staged re-introduction to the sport they took part in only six of the 13 events. Dani Sordo still managed to make quite an impact, with a third place finish in Germany and coming within 6.3 seconds of a win in France.

The MINI WRC Team has condensed its debut season into a sub-three minute highlights package, which can be seen after the break. Also included is Kris Meeke giving a brief tour of the MINI WRC cockpit.