MOTORSPORT: Euro manufacturers go full throttle

Volkswagen has unveiled its Polo R challenger for next year’s World Rally Championship, starting with the Monte Carlo Rally in mid-January.

And Porsche has confirmed its return to the Le Mans 24-Hour in 2014 with a full factory team.

It was revealed at the weekend that about 200 people in Stuggart are working on the design, development and construction of Porsche’s first outright contender for Le Mans since 1998.

The luxury German brand, which has won the classic 16 times, will come up against the might of Audi and Toyota this time around.

Its new project, titled P1, is being headed by former BMW engineer Fritz Enzinger, while Porsche’s head of motorsport Helmut Kristen remains in charge of all the manufacturer’s 911-based racing programs.

Porsche will run a factory team, in association with Manthey Racing, in next year’s FIA World Endurance Championship as its develops its new 991-shape 911 RSR GTE.

At its Night of Champions at its research and development centre in Germany at the weekend Porsche also revealed its all-new 911 GT3 Cup car that will run in the 2014 Carrera Cup in Australia.

The GT3 will debut in the Porsche Supercup in Europe next year, with 24 of the cars to be shipped to Australia for our national series the following year.

VW chose to unveil its Polo R WRC car at Monte Carlo’s famous Casino Square at the weekend rather than at its Wolfsburg factory.

It recruited French sensation Sebastien Ogier a year ago to head its WRC challenge and more recently Finn Jari-Matti Latvala from Ford, and has now announced that Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen – winner of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge the past two seasons - will drive a third works Polo R in the championship from the fourth round in Portugal.

While VW has competed in world rallying before it has never won the world title outright.

It will be taking on the long-dominant Citroen factory team, now with financial backing from Abu Dhabi, and the Ford M-Sport operation, which has secured money from Qatar following the Blue Oval’s withdrawal of factory finance.

VW’s motorsport director Jost Capito made no secret that it is eyeing podiums in its first season with the Polo R.

“After two years of development the whole team is ready for the start of the season,” Capito said.

“We have our homologation date next week and the two rally cars for Monte Carlo are being built now and will roll out over Christmas.

"The WRC is pretty new to us. We are all just at the start. We have a lot of learning to do through the season but want to challenge for podium positions in 2013 so we are prepared for the 2014 season, where we want to fight for wins."

Meanwhile, young Australian Brendan Reeves has had a short test drive in a full works spec Ford Fiesta WRC car in Britain as reward for his participation in the WRC Academy Series the past two seasons.

Reeves is still finalising his plans for next year.

Red Bull energy tycoon, Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, has talked up the potential of the WRC, to which his Red Bull Media House and German company Sportsman Media are in the process of becoming the media and promotional rights holders.

The series was left without a promoter this year after the Russian owner of Britain’s North One collapsed amid turmoil.

Although the governing Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) still has not signed an agreement with the new partners, Mateschitz said: "It's true that we believe the potential of the WRC to be bigger than it has appeared in the media in recent years.

“We will try to uncover its potential and tap into it.”

Mateschitz is keen for the WRC to develop “big personality drivers” but he may be at odds with FIA president Jean Todt over the length of rallies.

Todt is keen for them to return to longer distances as a greater test of endurance, but promotional genius Mateschitz said: “I don’t think it makes sense to relive the past.”

He also said "a broad range of marques is important to the WRC”.

“It doesn't really matter whether they're works teams or privateer teams backed by works outfits,” he said.

"The important thing is that the teams and their drivers should perform well, are competitive and put on a good and exciting show."

Ford Performance Racing, Holden Racing Team and Garry Rogers Motorsport are due to test their Cars of the Future at Victoria’s Winton track over the next couple of days.

The driver jigsaw for next season continues to take shape, with Alex Davison confirmed today for the fourth FPR entry – the new customer team of Charlie Schwerkolt, former partner in Dick Johnson Racing when James Courtney won the 2010 title.

The older brother of FPR factory driver Will Davison, it is his third full-time crack at V8 Supercars.

He has had a lot of success racing Porsches, internationally and in Australia, but has twice finished second in V8 Supercar races and has a perfect finishing record in nine starts at the Bathurst 1000.

Garry Rogers Motorsport earlier confirmed New Zealand teenager Scott McLaughlin as a full-time driver in next year’s championship.

McLaughlin, 19, won this year’s development series as well as NZ’s new V8 SuperTourer series.

He finished sixth at Bathurst with Jonathon Webb and they were 10th in the Sandown 500 together.

McLaughlin deputised in the final race of the V8 Supercar Championship at Sydney’s Homebush when Frenchman Alex Premat was unable to take his place in the GRM Commodore after the dehyrdration that cut short his race the previous day.

Rogers has introduced a swag of talented youngsters to V8 Supercar racing previously – most notably Jamie Whincup, who he let go and who is now a four-time champion, as well as Lee Holdsworth, Garth Tander, Jason Bargwanna, Steven Richards and most recently Michael Caruso, now headed to the new Nissan Motorsport (nee Kelly Brothers Racing).

While Russell Ingall is assured of another season with Walkinshaw Racing, fellow veteran Greg Murphy is out of a drive at the moment – and if he can’t land a full-time slot is likely to partner James Courtney in a Walkinshaw/HRT Commodore in the endurance races next year.

V8 Supercar race formats are being shaken up too for next season, when Nissan and AMG Mercedes-Benz entries will join Holdens and Fords on the grid.

Six of the 16 rounds will feature back-to-back 60km sprints on the Saturday, with just 15 minutes between them.

The finishing order of the first sprint will decide the starting order of the second – for which there will be rolling starts.

This format will be used at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains, Perth’s Barbagallo (Wanneroo), Darwin’s Hidden Valley, Ipswich’s Queensland Raceway, and Victoria’s Winton and Phillip Island.

Other changes regarding tyre compounds and refueling are in the pipeline, but the exact formats for the NZ round back at Pukekohe, the new American round in Texas as well as the Abu Dhabi event appear to be some way off.

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