The Definitive 2006 WRC Preview

No works efforts from Peugeot, Citroen, Skoda or Mitsubishi. New technical regulations. New 'Manufacturer 1' and 'Manufacturer 2' categories. A two-month summer break.

Yes, the 2006 version of the World Rally Championship will be unlike anything seen in the sport in recent years, and many with pick holes in a championship with just two works manufacturers left and a significant lack of driving strength in depth at the highest level. Yet underneath all that there is a mouthwatering prospect of an epic three driver, three car world title fight, which is just too close to call.

Since the end of last season, both Skoda and Mitsubishi have pulled the plug on the WRC, despite previous rule-changing efforts by the FIA to keep them in. They join Peugeot and Citroen in not running works teams in 2006.

Which leaves last season's works drivers and points scorers Toni Gardemeister, Francois Duval, Roman Kresta, Markko Martin, Harri Rovanpera, Gigi Galli, and Colin McRae without regular drives this season. One is a former champion, four are previous rally winners, and five finished on the podium last season. Most will drive selected events for privateers but none will be in contention for the title.

There are more 2005 drivers without a regular drive this season than those actually with one. The drivers' championship can only be fought between seven drivers this season, purely because that number is the total of drivers committed to a full programme of 16 rallies.

Outside the leading team's number one drivers - Sebastien Loeb (Kronos Citroen), Petter Solberg (Subaru) and Marcus Gronholm (Ford) - only Chris Atkinson (Subaru), Mikko Hirvonen (Ford), Manfred Stohl (OMV Peugeot) and Matthew Wilson (M-Sport Ford) are committed to all 16 rallies.

So yes, there will be a lack of numbers, which sounds like it would make for a dull title fight. However, with the off-season moves, the Loeb/Gronholm/Solberg battle has the makings of being one of the greatest title fights world rallying has ever seen.

The trio, who have won five of the last six world titles between them, will go into this year knowing that none are likely to run away with it in the way Loeb did in 2005. Loeb won a record breaking 10 out of a possible 16 rallies, taking the title with conformant ease.

But in 2006, the Frenchman will lose some of the technical supremacy the Xsara had because of the rule changes, and he will drive a modified version of his Xsara, run by Belgian privateer Kronos.

With a privateer, year-old car and fewer resources, logic suggests Loeb will have a tougher time of it this season. Just how much the Kronos switch will hamper his overall pace is unknown, with different experts making differing concessions in their predictions.

Gronholm is switching to Ford after seven years with Peugeot and with the Blue Oval's resources aligned with the Finn's undoubted ability, the double World Champion is up there with Loeb for a much stronger fight this season.

Ford made their new Focus debut in November's Rally Australia, and that could be a crucial advantage. They have experience of the new 2006 technical regulations in competitive conditions and no doubt will have been smiling all winter, able to work on the little glitches they found down under.

Solberg is the third driver in the trio many think could win the world title this year but perhaps has the biggest question mark still hanging over his 2006 campaign. He has the undoubted ability to capture his second world crown but will need a vast improvement from his Subaru team if he is challenge for the title this year. Subaru will be the only front-running team on Pirelli tyres, and as Bridgestone found in Formula One, if your tyre isn't great to start with, it can be a disadvantage to just have one team contracted.

But if Subaru and Pirelli do the business, the championship will be fought between the three best drivers of their generation.

They will all be supported by able number twos, with Subaru's Atkinson and Ford's Hirvonen both being asked to deliver on their potential.

But as far as state of the art WRC cars go - that's it. Just three teams.

To bolster the numbers, the FIA has formed a new Manufacturers 2 class for year-old cars, which will not compete for their own title but will fight with the M1 cars for supremecy.

These cars do not have to complete the full championship, meaning a further shortfall in some rounds. However, the FIA has a positive outlook on this inclusion, saying that it means that six Manufacturers, just like last year, are competing in the WRC. That statistic may be true, but last year, those six didn't have half of them with second-hand vehicles.

M2 runners could be in contention in attrition-hit events, such as the 2005 Rally Australia. But even without retirements, more television time will be focused on these drivers. Where the Xavier Pons and Manfred Stohls of this world last season would have been only of partial interest, they will now become the backbone of the competitor's entry.

But while most of the world's manufacturers currently think they don't need the sport, it doesn't necessarily follow that the sport needs them. The marketing departments may focus on winning the manufacturers title, but many rally fans have always been more worried about who is the fastest driver in the world, who continually displays the best superb car control on snow, gravel and asphalt.

And while there is significant scare-mongering surrounding this year's championship, it is easy to forget that despite all the doom and gloom, there will be a World Championship, with the world's best drivers battling for it. Even if manufacturers pull out altogether, the sport will still survive. People like rallying and want compete against the best.

Rallying still thrives as a national sport with drivers competing as privateers in various home championships around the globe. While it is a welcome ideology that at international level, best drivers should have the latest technology, the drivers themselves are not done a disservice if they fight on despite of this in privateer entries.

Manufacturers are a luxury, and with only Citroen confirmed to return in 2007 it wouldn't hurt the sport to look to a privateer formula for a while yet.

Manufacturer 1 entries

Kronos Total Citroen WRT

Car: Citroen Xsara WRC
Lead driver: Sebastien Loeb (full season)
Second drivers: Xavier Pons, Dani Sordo

Just how good will an updated Citroen Xsara be in the hands of a privateer? Well, double World Champion Sebastien Loeb thinks it will be good enough for him to compete for a hat-trick of titles. The French manufacturer announced late in 2004 that they, with Peugeot, were going to pull out at the end of 2005, but they have now since committed to coming back in 2007 with their C4 model.

This year will only be a temporary tie-up with the Belgian privateer, but with a championship winning car and a double World Champion on board they will still be many people's favourites. After all, many in the sport are not putting too much weight behind the 'privateer' tag - there will be help from Citroen, and Ford and Subaru employ M-Sport and Prodrive to run their works efforts anyway.

However, their chief rivals are building brand new cars, while Kronos try and eek every last tenth out of what will essentially be a year-old Xsara. But then, if you are going to start with an old car, you can't go wrong with one that was victorious in 11 out of the 16 rallies last season....

BP-Ford World Rally Team

Car: Ford Focus WRC 2006
Lead driver: Marcus Gronholm (full season)
Second driver: Mikko Hirvonen (full season)

The superhuman effort to ready the new Focus WRC 2006 for November's Rally Australia cannot be underestimated. They are the only team to experience in competitive conditions the revised technical regulations and not only know the pace of their car, but know that it should be pretty reliable too.

Toni Gardemeister retired on the penultimate stage of the event in Australia with water pump problems, but boss Malcolm Wilson argues that they learnt more from having the failures than they would have if he had crossed the finish line.

Drivers wise, the pair is a vast improvement on Gardemeister and Roman Kresta from last season. Double World Champion Marcus Gronholm should have no problem adapting to his new machine despite seven years with Peugeot, and Mikko Hirvonen has shown flashes of speed.

Hirvonen enjoyed a works season with the then reigning champions Subaru in 2004 but he never made the podium. However, that changed last season running in a privateer Focus with third in Spain, having already earned a promotion to the works team in Finland and a call up by Skoda for Japan. He will have his pace measured for some rallies due to lack of experience. Kresta has stayed with the team as full time test driver, which should ease the transition between the driver line-ups.

Subaru World Rally Team

Car: Subaru Impreza WRC
Lead driver: Petter Solberg (full season)
Second drivers: Chris Atkinson (full season), Stephane Sarrazin

Petter Solberg, 2003 World Champion, will readily admit that he just didn't have the equipment to do the job last year and as a result the new season represents a crucial year for Subaru. Beaten by Ford into a lowly fourth place in the manufacturers' championship in 2005, the Japanese carmaker will debut an all-new car based on their beautifully remodelled Impreza.

Ignoring his inherited victory in Great Britain, Solberg's victories in Sweden and Mexico showed that the Norwegian still has the pace to do the job, especially considering that victories were within in his grasp in both Australia and Japan before crashes, through no fault of his own, forced him out.

Solberg remains Subaru's best asset and won't be too far out of contention in a three-way title fight with Loeb and Gronholm if the car performs well.

Chris Atkinson showed enough pace towards the end of the season to be granted a full campaign this time around but must build on his WRC experience from last year and score consistent results. Stephane Sarrazin will still be Subaru's asphalt expert and will drive another car in four rallies, and he is likely to be nominated as the second car each time, starting with Monte Carlo.

Manufacturer 2 entries

OMV-Peugeot Norway

Car: Peugeot 307 WRC
Lead driver: Manfred Stohl (full season)
Second driver: Henning Solberg

The Peugeot 307 itself was no match for the Xsara WRC last season, only winning twice in the hands of Marcus Gronholm. But as an M2 car it could be a force, with Stohl having more experience than any of the regular drivers in similar machinery. Petter Solberg's brother Henning will drive the majority of the season as his teammate, having driven a number of events for Ford last year.

Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team

Car: Ford Focus WRC04
Lead driver: Matthew Wilson (full season)
Second drivers: Peter Tsjoen, Kosti Katajamaki, Jari-Matti Latvala, and Luis-Perez Companc

He only turned to his father's discipline in 2004 but has already performed strongly, becoming last season the youngest ever winner of a British Rally Championship event at 18, when he won the Trackrod Rally.

Father Malcolm says the move is, like many previous drivers, part of a five-year plan to getting him to a winning level, but due to lack of numbers this year it would just take a cool head in an event where others were dropping out like flies for young Wilson to finish on the podium or win outright.

The Focus he will be using has proved reliable enough to back up that theory and unlike the other entries, it will be run by the same team that ran it when it was a works car - M-Sport. Wilson will be joined by a variety of drivers in the second car.

Red Bull-Skoda Team

Car: Skoda Fabia
Drivers: Andreas Aigner, Gilles Panizzi, Mattias Ekstrom, others

The results didn't lie, and the pace of Fabia was off the other manufacturers last year, and there is little to suspect that a privateer can make up the deficit to what will be competently run Ford and Peugeot M2 efforts.

Austrian youngster Andreas Aigner has been confirmed as the team's lead driver with Gilles Panizzi and Mattias Ekstrom sharing the team's second car in early events. DTM champion Ekstrom regularly competes in his home Swedish Rally, and he scored his best result in the same car last year in 10th.

SIDEBAR

The idiot's guide to the what's new for 2006

How many cars are competing in the WRC in 2006?

Eight cars are committed to the full year, with seven drivers presently confirmed for every round. There are a further four cars registered to compete in the majority of the championship. This means there are 12 'manufacturer' cars registered for the championship by the FIA. These are the split into Manufacturer 1 and Manufacturer 2 categories. There will be occasional third cars for some teams in some rallies.

What is a Manufacturer 1 team?

An 'M1' or 'WR1' team is a state-of-the-art World Rally Championship car conforming to the latest homologation and technical regulations. Ford and Subaru will enter works machines based around their latest road cars, and Kronos have entered their privateer Citroen Xsara programme as an M1 entry. The entry fee is high (€212,000 EUR) and the cars entered must conform to the new 2006 technical regulations.

These teams must nominate one driver for the entire season, with the second eligible points-scoring driver nominated five weeks before the event. They must compete in all 16 rallies.

So what are these new Manufacturer 1 technical regulations?

The biggest change in the new regulations is the switch from active to standard, passive differentials. Some found active differentials were difficult and to get the best out of them was cumbersome and have welcomed the change on predictability grounds. The main other difference is the banning of water injected turbo engines.

What is a Manufacturer 2 team?

An 'M2' or 'WR2' team is essentially one competing with older machinery. More specifically, an M2 team cannot enter a car homologated due for 2006 or parts homologated after January 2nd this year. The entry fee is a steal compared with the M1 teams (just 12 per cent of it - €25,000 Euros), but here's the catch - they can't use drivers who have finished in the top six of the Drivers' World Championship in the last five years.

This means that many drivers were left out in the cold because of the withdrawal of factory teams - including Francois Duval, Toni Gardemeister, Markko Martin, Colin McRae, and Harri Rovanpera - all of whom could not find a drive for the season with an M2 team.

However, it is cheaper to run an M2 team for the year because they only have to compete in a minimum of 10 rallies (which have already been pre-nominated).

Are the M1 and M2 teams competing for different manufacturers titles?

No. This is a common misunderstanding. They are actually competing for the same FIA World Rally Manufacturers title and it is theoretically possible that an M2 team competing the full season - such as the M-Sport Ford Stobart team - could walk off with the manufacturers' title.

So, why bother entering a Manufacturer 1 team when you can pay a fraction of the cost to enter a Manufacturer 2 team and compete for the same title?

Two reasons, which suit the big bucks motor manufacturers: Firstly, an M1 team can build cars based on their latest road going models, which justifies the marketing reasons for ploughing money into the sport in the first place.

Having an M2 category makes the sport more affordable, allowing M1 teams to sell on their old cars and offering a cheaper route into the sport.

Secondly, the M1 teams can employ the best drivers (by historical definition). Kronos's Citroen effort has had to register as an M1 team because of their employment of double champion Sebastien Loeb, even though the Xsara is an old car and is being phased out.

If drivers from the top six of last year's championship are ineligible for M2 teams, how come Gilles Panizzi is driving for Skoda in the Monte Carlo Rally?

The Red Bull Skoda team are entering Panizzi on the Monte and he did finish sixth in the championship in 2004. As a result, Panizzi's Skoda will have to conform to 2006 technical regulations, meaning it will have a passive differential. It will be different to the car driven by Austrian youngster Andreas Aigner, which can have active differential.

What if an M1 or M2 manufacturer misses an event?

The penalty is large. A registered M1 or M2 team that miss a round which they nominated to compete in will be fined €225,000 EUR and will no longer be included in the classification of the championship. The FIA's World Motor Sport Council may consider a case of force majeure, however.

Has Michelin withdrawn from the series? They aren't on any of the cars this year

The French tyre giant is just using its sister brand BF-Goodrich to badge its rubber this season for marketing reasons. Five of the six manufacturer teams will be running on BF Goodrich rubber, including the OMV Peugeot team, which were Pirelli-shod last year in works hands. Subaru will be the only manufacturer team running on Pirellis this year.

Are world rallies still being paired, with engines expected to last two rallies, as in Formula One?

In principle yes, but it will be a slightly different format this year, and other components will also be expected to last longer.

As in Formula One, engines had to last two rallies in 2005. However, the events did not necessarily follow each other chronologically and the FIA specified the twinned events for logistical reasons. Only two events were twinned for chassis last season.

The 2006 twinning list only specifies ten paired rallies for engines and chassis, with the introduction of twinned events for gearboxes. There will also be a limitation on other mechanical parts across linked events.

Cars entering one event must use the same specified components in the other events or risk facing a time penalty.

Linked events for engine and chassis:

• Monte Carlo and Sweden
• Spain and France
• Italy and Greece
• Germany and Finland
• Australia and New Zealand

For these rallies the engine and chassis will be sealed together, and it will not be possible to separate them, except under the supervision of the FIA.

Linked events for gearbox:

• Italy and Greece
• Cyprus and Turkey
• Australia and New Zealand

In the first rally of the link, two gearbox and differential assemblies per car will be sealed. In the second rally of the link, one gearbox and differential assembly per car will be sealed.

When are the rallies?

Here is the 2006 calendar:

20-22 January       Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo
3-5 February        Uddeholm Swedish Rally
3-5 March           Corona Rally Mexico
24-26 March         Rallye de Espana
7-9 April           Rallye de France - Tour de Corse
28-30 April         Rally Argentina
18-21 May           Rallye Italia-Sardinia
2-4 June            Acropolis Rally of Greece
11-13 August        OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland
18-20 August        Neste Rally Finland
1-3 September       Rally Japan
22-24 September     The Cyprus Rally
13-15 October       Rally of Turkey
27-29 October       Rally Australia
17-19 November      Rally of New Zealand
1-3 December        Wales Rally GB

Why is there a big gap in the calendar during the summer?

The World Rally Championship is moving towards an A1 GP-style winter championship, giving greater calendar freedom and making it easier to avoid Formula One dates.

This year's championship will have a long summer break between the Acropolis Rally, on June 2nd, until the Rally Deutschland, on August 11-13.

The 2007 championship will then be an eight-round series held in the fist six months of 2007, before the new style season kicks in, in 2007/08. The knock-on effect is that the WRC will avoid Formula One and other big summer sports, such as the Olympic games and the World Cup.

So with all the swapping around of drivers, M1 and M2 cars and everything else, who are the realistic title contenders for the Drivers' Championship?

Just seven are confirmed for the full season, so it would be foolish to look outside any of those. Sebastien Loeb, Petter Solberg and Marcus Gronholm are the lead drivers for the three M1 teams and are committed to the full season. Realistically the title is between them, but Mikko Hirvonen (Ford) and Chris Atkinson (Subaru) are both committed to the full season and are dark horses. Manfred Stohl will complete the season in an M2 OMV-Peugeot Norway 307, as will Malcolm Wilson in Ford's junior team.