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Posts Tagged ‘peugeot 307wrc’

Citroen’s big dilemma: A satisfied Petter Solberg is too good

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

Citroen has been facing the same dilemma all the season, but now they’re really face to face with it:

If Petter doesn’t get fresh parts of the Xsara the car isn’t good enough for him to be happy, and if he does get fresh parts the car+driver mix is way too good for Citroen’s taste.

As soon as Petter got his new gear in Sardinia, Loeb was forced behind Solberg in fourth place. For sure Loeb had some bad luck, but without Petter he would get six points instead of five… I’m sure the Citroen bosses are worried that Petter will steal more points from Loeb and more important from the manufacturer team later this year.

As I see it, there are two main scenarios that are really simple:

Scenario one, Citroën accepts Petter’s speed and the fact that he may take a few points away of Loeb, Sordo and the junior team (the effect on the junior team is small, as they normally aren’t good enough to pass Petter even with his old gear) during the rest of the year. They let him have the 2006 parts, a good engine mapping and the passive differentials – that all allow him to be fast. (The parts are already given to him, and it will be hard to take them away – but Citroen are still able to give him a weaker engine mapping to make him go slower…)
Scenario two, Citroen think they cannot afford Petter to be fast with his Xsara, and they reduce his chances of a win by not giving him any further upgrades and by making changes to his engine mapping. However, I’m sure Petter wouldn’t accept that (PSWRT and cheif engineer Fx Demaison are probably staring like eagles on the performance of the engine after the turns with Citroen), and I’m quite sure they he want to see continous progress on the car – otherwise they’ll leave Citroen for Ford or possibly even the Peugeot 307 (read more here and here).

I think the decision for scenario one or two will be done partly by Petter’s feeling in Sardinia, if he’s happy enough or not – but also by Loeb’s and Sordo’s pace in the next few rallies. If the Citroen management see Ford getting closer in the race for the manufacturers title, I’m quite sure they won’t allow Petter to continue taking points away from them. However, if Loeb remains unthreatened for the drivers title and if Citroen can keep their distance in the manufacturers championship, maybe it’s OK. Citroen have probably already got used to the fact that their juniors aren’t able to beat Petter more than on random occasions…

The future will tell…

UPDATE:
Read more (in Norweigan) about Petter’s performance in Sardinia on the following (external) links:

http://www.dagsavisen.no/sport/article417284.ece
http://www.vg.no/sport/motor/artikkel.php?artid=547805

Tags: 2006, championship, citroen, dilemma, drivers, engine mapping, ford, manufacturers, petter solberg, petter solberg world rally team, peugeot 307wrc, points, pswrt, sardinia, spec, upgrade, xsara
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »

Skoda staying in IRC – disappointment for Sandell?

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Skoda’s intention to not enter the WRC in the next few years may be good to the championship, since it opens the door for Volkswagen to enter. However, to Patrik Sandell, who just signed a contract to run the Fabia Super2000 with Red Bull in this years championship, it’s for sure a disappointment. Even if it’s not a major throwback, I’m sure Sandell would have hoped to seal a works drive for Skoda – maybe backed up by Red Bull – as soon as possible.

However, the Red Bull contacts are still very useful, he has a good contract for the 2009 and he has all possibilities for the next few years, so there should be no big worries.

Tags: IRC, patrik sandell, peugeot 307wrc, skoda, volkswagen
Posted in IRC, Silly season, WRC | No Comments »

Henning’s lucky day

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

A little bit more than a week ago Henning Solberg presented his deal: he pay’s 11M NOK (ca €1,15M) to drive with Ford/Stobart’s M2 team in all 12 rallies of the WRC season. A golden deal, considering that Henning according to himself will have a lot of testing and some extra priority included in the deal.

However, it’s quite a cheap price for the whole championship. What happened? In fact, Henning’s deal is more golden than you can imagine. Just the day before he announced his plans for 2009, he still thought he would do the season in a Peugeot 307WRC. Then – in the last hours – he got a call from Ford, offering him a drive 50% financed by Stobart (of course this means there will be some Stobart branding on the car), with testing, etc etc.

So, for Henning – that already had a car and just waited for his sponsors to commit – the decision must have been very easy. Switch back to the car he has already used for two years (before he had even left it), but in an even better deal, and save some money and problems. Crystal clear.

Tags: ford, ford focus wrc, henning solberg, peugeot 307wrc, stobart
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »

Petter Solberg Team using the 307WRC?

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Since Petter Solberg was left without a drive when Subaru retired there have been discussions on what he may do in the future. One of the possibilities have been to start a private team – an alternative that seems more and more likely considering the amount of time that has elapsed after the Subaru announcement. If so, what car would he drive? Here are some thougths…

Petter could use 2009 to adapt to the Super 2000 cars that will be used in 2010. Will he? No. He wants to compete against his old rivals – and win! That ends the discussion regarding Petter in a S2000 car.

So, going for a WRC car, what’s left?

Subaru Impreza WRC? Yes, that’s a possibility. Petter obviously has good connections with Prodrive and I think he should have a car there, since Prodrive expected him to drive until just before christmas. But I also think that the japanese manufacturer doesn’t want to get Petter Solberg running around the world in their cars – almost like a manufacturer driver. That’s too close to how things were last year, and Subaru has retired since then. That would make the japanese bosses “lose their face”.

Ford Focus WRC? If Petter wanted to rent a car from Malcolm, it would for sure be possible. If Malcolm didn’t have the car – he would build it. The problem is that Petter probably doesn’t want to be driving using the same gear as Henning. Also, Henning is from what I’ve understood first driver in the Stobart team, which means he has got quite high priority. Petter would never go with lower priority than Henning. But anyway, I don’t think he’s willing to risk to lose against Henning in the same car… The Solberg-brothers fight is good PR for Henning – not Petter.

Citroen C4 WRC? Citroen would be a good choice to Petter, but their factory team is full and their team of young drivers too. Added to that, Petter is not a young driver – and more important I don’t know how Citroen can manage to get enough cars. Counting on their M1 and M2 team they should already now have to work quite hard to get cars enough out to the rallies…

Suzuki SX4 WRC? I don’t know if the Suzukis are for rent, and I doubt they are. But if they are, I don’t think Petter is interested. The cars are quite new, a lot of problems still remais and Petter wants to win – not develop a car. So, no…

Mitsubishi Lancer WRC? No, the Lancer is just not good enough for Petter.

Skoda Fabia WRC? No, the Fabia is just not good enough for Petter.

Peugeot 307 WRC? Those cars are run by Bozian, they are for hire – and they have been developed quite a lot since Peugeot left the WRC after 2005. It’s an old car, but I still consider it a fully possible choice for Petter to use in the WRC.

If I were to bet regarding this today, I would put my money on Petter Solberg in a private team using a Bozian run 307WRC.
Am I sure? No, not at all – quite the opposite. But it’s my best shot.

Here follows some pictures of the 307 WRC at Daniel Carlsson’s test in February 2008 in Sweden – a spec that is probably close to what Petter could be driving in 2009.