Mini: Taking on the WRC establishment with style

Having arrived with a car that looked entirely incongruous and sounded slightly odd, Mini made its mark on the World Rally Championship early.

Now, three rallies old, the Mini WRC is a player. And a podium player at that.

It's fair to say that this project gave ammunition to its doubters: from its unconventional beginnings in a generic CAD design to the structuring of the commercial side of a programme which shouts big BMW budget but relies partly on car sales and customers to float the finances.

Nobody, however, can detract from what that triangular alliance of BMW-Mini-Prodrive has achieved.

Last week, that most British of German cars stood up to Ford's Fiesta RS WRC and fended it off on Rallye Deutschland.

Dani Sordo's third place in Germany was a remarkable achievement - and comfortably the best for an all-new World Rally Car for a long time.

The car demonstrated its pace in Sardinia, where Kris Meeke was third fastest on the second stage, and in Finland, where Sordo ran as high as fifth.

We were told, however, that Germany and its many, many tight junctions would expose the Mini's lack of grunt. It didn't seem to work like that.

Undoubtedly, there is work to do on the Mini's powerplant - and Prodrive taking over the development of the engine from BMW's Motorsport division could speed this process along - but the flip-side of that is the way the rest of the car works.

Sordo took German podium © sutton-images.com

Watching the Mini in Finland and Germany, you saw a perfectly well settled and balanced chassis which is inspiring confidence in the drivers.

The team's technical director, Dave Wilcock, points to the early development work as the reason for the car's handling ability.

"That has a lot to do with the time we spent looking at what would make the perfect car under the new regulations," says Wilcock.

"We looked at every alternative and came up with a very good solution from the simulations in terms of things like the geometry.

"Because of this design work, we knew we would be strong on asphalt so I wouldn't say I'm totally surprised by the result in Germany."

Wilcock is quick to add that the drivers' pedigree on asphalt also helped in no small part.

Sordo's speed with slicks beneath him has been well documented in recent world championship seasons, but it's worth remembering Meeke's efforts in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge included winning events like Ypres (first time out) and Sanremo.

When Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen suffered a puncture on the first run through the Panzerplatte stage in Germany, Sordo was up to third with a handy half-minute over the Fiesta. Now we'd see just where the Mini was.

And Sordo was more than up for the fight, offering a prediction of "podium or nothing."

The Spaniard was backed by the team as well. After putting in some solid times on the two previous rallies, Mini chief David Richards had let his drivers off the leash in Germany, saying: "Let's see how fast this car can go."

In all honesty, the watching world probably expected Hirvonen to come right back past the Mini. But he didn't.

He nibbled away here and there, but it was nowhere near enough to take the 30 seconds he needed.

Credit has to be given to Sordo here. He drove an exemplary rally. It's worth noting that among the top drivers, only he and rally winner Sebastien Ogier escaped without punctures.

Typically, Sordo had a pretty straightforward explanation for maintaining air pressure on all four corners on all 19 stages.

"Most of the time the puncture comes when you're off the road," says Sordo. "That's where the rocks are, or if you are coming back to the road, you can hit the kerb."

The message Sordo was getting across was, drive the car straight and you're going to slash your chances of slashing a tyre.

Meeke ran strongly early on too © sutton-images.com

Of course, there was an element of luck in Sordo's rally - having seen the onboard footage of the stage where Sebastien Loeb suffered his puncture, he wasn't off the road at all.

Sordo is already showing himself to be a huge asset to the Mini team. He's consistent and quick, which is just what the Banbury outfit needs right now.

And the even better news is the speed Meeke is showing. There were those who would have pondered Meeke's IRC credentials and whether they would stand up to an examination from the world championship pack. Well, they have.

The Northern Irishman suffered a multitude of punctures in Germany, without which he would have been looking at a top-five finish.

The key for Meeke right now is to realise that he's in the team on merit. He deserves his place and he doesn't have to try to beat Sordo on every stage.

So much of the time in Germany, Meeke would emerge from a stage wracked with frustration at having missed out on eclipsing his team-mate's time by a tenth or so, despite having been up on him at an earlier split.

For now, it doesn't matter. That said, there's probably not a more competitive soul than Meeke in the WRC. To him, everything matters.

What can we expect in the immediate future? Is a win possible on the car's next two asphalt outings?

Missing the next rally in Australia will give the team time to test, but the reality is that the next step on the engine is unlikely to come this year.

Privately, there must have been groans around Prodrive when it heard about BMW's decision to go touring car racing in Germany in 2012. And, one look at the stunning prototype BMW M3 DTM offers a handy indication about where the motorsport money in Munich is being spent.

The three rallies the Mini WRC has contested so far offers an indication of a very bright future in rallying, however. And Richards says the team isn't far away.

"Clearly, we're not there yet," he says. "But we are close. There are lots of detail areas we can look at now.

"We'll do an iterative process around the car now, but this result in Germany will raise the bar for us. When you set the standard, you want to then improve on it.

Richards praised Meeke's performance © sutton-images.com

"I've been very pleased with the drivers in Germany as well; Dani has driven an impeccable event and Kris was very, very good as well.

"Everybody knows what Dani can do on asphalt, but I imagined that this was the sort of result and performance we could expect from Kris - I think he's a driver who has been underestimated for many years."

Realistically, a return to the podium in France depends as much on the conditions as anything else in the Alsace.

Both Minis will start behind the regulars in October and, if it rains like it did last year, they will find the muddy asphalt near impossible to make an impression on.

Beyond France, there's a couple of potential dream-making events: Sordo at home in Catalunya and Meeke at home on Rally GB.

For Spain, if it's dry for the first day on gravel, then the Mini drivers could make the most of the cars ahead sweeping the loose gravel clear for them. And, once onto asphalt, few - actually just one (Loeb) - can match Sordo's speed at home...

And for GB, it's easy to blithely talk about Meeke on his home event, but don't forget he hasn't competed there since 2006. Just matching Sordo will be a pretty big ask in Wales.

The big news, however, is that the Mini is definitely on the money.

It's way too early to talk of the car's ultimate potential, but when it arrives at what's likely to be an emotional Monte Carlo Rally next year, it does so as an undoubted triumph of substance and style.