Subaru signs Sarrazin and Atkinson for 2005 WRC

[motorsportnerd]

Subaru has signed two Frenchmanc Stephanie Sarrazin and Australian Chris Atkinson for its 2005 WRC attack: http://www.wrc.com/News.aspx?PO_ID=5...lse&lang=en_GB.

This came as something of a surprise. I had heard the Subaru was considering Sarrazin, but Atkinson's signing was a bolt from the blue. Last I heard in the Australian motorsport press was that Atkinson was hoping to drive for Timo Makinen's new team in the World Production Championship in a Group N Subaru Impreza.
However, Prodrive have seen potential and seen fit to promote him straight into a WRC Impreza. It will be interesting to see how he goes. Having an Australian in the WRC in a front running car will likely cause a massive increase in the popularity of the World Rally Championship and of rallying in general in Australia. This is the first time that an Australian or New Zealand driver has been signed for a full World Championship schedule with a factory team.
Rod Millen (NZ) drove various WRC rounds in factory Mazdas during the 80s, but never a full season. He was involved with Mazda's plans for a Group B 4WD RX7 - but that programme never took off.
Possum Bourne (NZ) was a factory Subaru driver for all his career, but only drove selected WRC rounds every year, and mostly for the Subaru Australia team. He did have a few outings for Prodrive in the Imprezas in the mid 1990s alongside Sainz and McRae, and acquited himself well. However, the Australian and Asia Pacific championships were his main focus. Bourne could've been a WRC front runner if given the chance when he was in his early 20s.
More recently, Michael Guest drove for Hyundai in the 2000 World F2 Rally Championship in the FWD Hyundai Coupe and also had one outing in the Accent WRC.
Other Australians and NZ drivers have driven WRC rounds in Europe as privateers, but with little success.

Atkinson now joins Mark Webber as a driver in a car capable of winning a World Championship. The media here are already speculating on which will win a World Championship first (in the Aussie's media's usual heavily patriotic way...).
2005 marks the year that Australian drivers have the chance to once again win a World Championship on four wheels, rather than 2 wheels. The last time was 1980.

[spi-ti-tout]

The important question is....
Are they any good?

[Blitz_]

Yes, could they have signed 2 new drivers that will be constantly be out gunned by the experienced drivers. Any news of signed drivers for Fords WRC team?

[Mustang]

yep ford drivers are

Roman Kresta

and

Toni Gordameister

[netburner]

Originally Posted by Mustang

yep ford drivers are

Roman Kresta

and

Toni Gordameister

...and Anthony Warmbold

[Mustang]

arr harr

so why you want to know if anyone goes to wrc germany ?

[Falcon500]

You forgot to mention Ross Dunkerton the first and currently only australian to win a WRC Stage....he also competed in numerous factory drives for Mits and done reasonbly well...why he didnt push for full time is beyond me....

[fpv_gtho]

Subaru's trump card with this seems to be their running 3 cars to what seems to be everyone elses 2 cars, they can afford the risk if Atkinson underachieves (thats probably the "kindest" word for what im thinking). Then again, if he proves the success Prodrive and everyone this side of the globe is hoping for, no doubt he'll be offered a much better deal than previously offered and Subaru should prove highly dominant as a manufacturer.

[charged]

I think next year may be a learning curve,but in 2006 look out hopefully,he has bee quick in the Australian rounds and he was driving a Suzi in the wrc,not sure how he went in the Suzi

[fpv_gtho]

From what ive heard, his target is just to score championship points in a certain amount of rounds, dont know the exact figures. Could be an amount over the whole year, could be to score in 5 rounds regardless of if he wins or gets lowest points scoring position

[motorsportnerd]

The Suzi was the car that Atkinson drove in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. He won the F2 class (top two wheel drive car) and finished sixth outright on the table. Not sure how he did in the WRC rounds he constested - but I believe he was competitive in the Junior World Rally Championship section in the the Suzuki.

[Sharpie]

Chris has done well, he will set some quick stage times this year I'm sure but maybe too early to win rallies.

[netburner]

Ford has got a fourth driver under contract for 7 rallies in 2005: Henning Solberg (older brother of Petter Solberg from Subaru). He will maybe drive for manufacturers points at some rallies instead of Roman Kresta.

So the carlist is this:

Updated: 20-12-2004

Citroen (Michelin):
Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena
François Duval/Stéphane Prevot


Peugeot (Pirelli):
Marcus Grönholm/Timo Rautiainen
Markko Märtin/Michael Park
Daniel Carlsson/? (third car at some rallies)
Cedric Robert/? (third car at some rallies)


Ford (Michelin):
Toni Gardemeister/?
Roman Kresta/?
Henning Solberg/? (7 Rallyes, maybe for manufacturers points)
Anthony Warmbold/Gemma Price



Subaru (Pirelli):
Petter Solberg/Phil Mills
Stéphane Sarrazin/Jacques-Julien Renucci (8 or 9 rallies)
Chris Atkinson/? (7 or 8 rallies)


Mitsubishi (Pirelli):
Harri Rövanperä/Risto Pietiläinen
Gilles Panizzi/Hervé Panizzi (2nd car at some rallies)
Gianluigi Galli/Guido Amore (2nd car at some rallies)



Skoda (Michelin):
Armin Schwarz/Klaus Wicha
Jani Paasonen/Jani Vainikka (gravel)
Janne Tuohino/J. Aho (gravel)
Alexandre Bengue/Caroline Escudero (tarmac)
Mattias Ekström/Stefan Bergman (third car in Sweden)
Jan Kopecky/? (third car at some rallies)



OMV World Rallye Team (Citroen Xsara/Michelin)
Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor
Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (?)