2 more WRC driver redundant

[lukeh]

Next year:

works-teams:
Ford
Subaru

private teams (new FIA class, 2005 cars, points for teams and drivers):
2 Skoda teams
2 or 3 Ford teams
maybe 1 Mitsubishi team
1 Subaru team

Private teams
M-sport (Ford Focus WRC)Luis Perez-Companq (8 rounds ?)
M-sport (Ford Focus WRC)Kosti Katajamaki (5 rounds ?)
M-sport (Ford Focus WRC)Jari Matti Latvalla (4 rounds ?)
Bozian (Peugeot 307 WRC) D.Sola, A.Warmbold, Nicolas Bernardi, Didier Auriol, H.Solberg ?
Atolye Kazaz (Subaru WRC) K. Sohlberg?, Aris Vovos?
Red Bull (Skoda Fabia WRC) A. Aigner!, M. Stohl?, F. Loix?, G. Galli???
Kopecky Team (Skoda Fabia WRC) J. Kopecky!
Kronos/Citroen (Citroen Xsara WRC) S. Loeb! X. Pons!

Don't think Loix will drive in WRC in 2006.
The same for Auriol - maybe just Monte and Corsica.
Think that Hening Solberg will go for Ford M-Sport!
Stohl probably will do with Kronos 10 rounds!?
Alex Bengue ??
Toni Gardemeister ??
Dani Sordo ?
Harri Rovanpera ?

[Cotterik]

2 works teams haha

that could actually be REALY interesting. To see a battle between just 2 teams. My 2 teams that i support, ironically. 2006 cant come soon enough!

[spi-ti-tout]

That has to suck for Spi-ti-out , I know how much you like Mitisubishi . Now you have to wait until 2008 for the team to come back

A great sin

Seriously, very disappointed though, been with them since I heard of rallying and the one year that I finally got the chance to understand it properly and now they're going

[Buggy]

Peugeot, Citroen, Skoda and Mitsubishi gone from WRC. Audi possibley leaving DTM. Toyota and Cheve gone from IRL. Michelin going from F1. Alfa gone from WTCC. Private teams falling out of F1. I THINK ITS TIME TO CUT COSTS!!!!!!

[lukeh]

Opel will also be leaving the DTM I heard.

[forza_autodelta]

A great sin

Seriously, very disappointed though, been with them since I heard of rallying and the one year that I finally got the chance to understand it properly and now they're going

it's the time for you to join me and to support Skoda no seriously , it's time for them to recruit real drivers , as Bengue and Mc Rae...'cause Schwarz was useful only to test the resistance of the car

[Jack_Bauer]

Opel will also be leaving the DTM I heard.

GM/Opel are definitely leaving DTM, that was confirmed a while ago. Does anyone know how serious the rumours are about Audi leaving the series? That would suck big time if it left Mercedes by themselves. DTM has been just about the most exciting race series in the world for the past two seasons but losing all serious competition would kill it off right in its prime.

I remember hearing a rumour a while ago that Alfa Romeo were considering entering DTM for 2006, but surely we would've heard something concrete by now if they were?

Rubbish news all round for motorsport enthusiasts it seems.

[Clivey]

Peugeot, Citroen, Skoda and Mitsubishi gone from WRC. Audi possibley leaving DTM. Toyota and Cheve gone from IRL. Michelin going from F1. Alfa gone from WTCC. Private teams falling out of F1. I THINK ITS TIME TO CUT COSTS!!!!!!

I think the first cost-cutting exercise should be to sack the bean counting assholes that make these crap decisions.

[spi-ti-tout]

it's the time for you to join me and to support Skoda no seriously , it's time for them to recruit real drivers , as Bengue and Mc Rae...'cause Schwarz was useful only to test the resistance of the car

Always have mate.
No use now though as the official team is backing out. Anybody can get a privateer team.

'll probably go with Ford next year, but just slight support anyway.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

[lukeh]

GM/Opel are definitely leaving DTM, that was confirmed a while ago. Does anyone know how serious the rumours are about Audi leaving the series? That would suck big time if it left Mercedes by themselves. DTM has been just about the most exciting race series in the world for the past two seasons but losing all serious competition would kill it off right in its prime.

I remember hearing a rumour a while ago that Alfa Romeo were considering entering DTM for 2006, but surely we would've heard something concrete by now if they were?

Rubbish news all round for motorsport enthusiasts it seems.

yes Audi are definitely pulling out of the DTM. But there are rumours that Toyota are interested in entering the DTM. Mercedes just dominate the DTM and there is little chance for other teams to win. I heard that the boss from HDR Motorsport is also a President of the DTM (not 100% sure) that is really unfair because Mercedes pretty much control the DTM!

[Jack_Bauer]

yes Audi are definitely pulling out of the DTM. But there are rumours that Toyota are interested in entering the DTM. Mercedes just dominate the DTM and there is little chance for other teams to win. I heard that the boss from HDR Motorsport is also a President of the DTM (not 100% sure) that is really unfair because Mercedes pretty much control the DTM!

Mercedes haven't been that dominant in recent seasons IMO. They have greater numbers than everyone else, but last year Ekstrom won for Audi and this year it went down to last race of the year between Ekstrom and Paffett for the title. Audi were still highly competitive from what I can see, but I'm guessing the rewards didn't justify the spiralling costs, especially with Audi Motorsport division focusing heavily on Le Mans for the next couple of years.

[netburner]

luke: where did you get the info that Audi will DEFINITELY leave? My infos said something different, they were a little bit annoyed about some things which went wrong in the DTM marketing and in the racecontrol-team, but in last week there was an election of a new team for the DTM-racecontrol and a guy of Audi was elected for some guy of Opel who had to leave his job in the race-control because Opel left DTM. So this could be a sign for Audi staying in business...

And no, Alfa is not entering DTM, there were some rumors about Gianni Giudici bringing in some private build 159 DTM cars, but that was rubbish...

Also Toyota was only looking what is going on in DTM, they never said they will come in. They are looking at every race-series to see, which is best for them to compete in.

[lukeh]

I got told by a friend that Audi were going to leave, but my German isn't perfect so maybe I misunderstood him. I read about Toyota looking into participating in DTM on Eurosport Teletext.

p.s I hope that Toyota can rejoin the WRC when it becomes more appealing to the manufactures, why did they pull out in the first place?

[Evil Ewok]

You also are forgetting another team that has pulled out from a major motorsports racing series, Nissan announced that they pulled out Dakar, which is a major blow to the top trucks considering that there are only 3 real manurfacturers that are pushing their support now (VDub, Mitsu and BMW). So yea, this year is going to be a pretty harsh season for enthusiasts. We will just have to see if it will get any better in the next couple years.

[Evil Ewok]

I got told by a friend that Audi were going to leave, but my German isn't perfect so maybe I misunderstood him. I read about Toyota looking into participating in DTM on Eurosport Teletext.

p.s I hope that Toyota can rejoin the WRC when it becomes more appealing to the manufactures, why did they pull out in the first place?

I had found a news brief on that once but I dont remember that main details, I think it was that they had wanted to try other forms of motorsports so they had to free up the costs of rallying...or something.