Subaru re-signs Atkinson for 2006

The 25-year-old made his WRC debut this year with Subaru, sharing their second points-scoring car with Stephane Sarrazin.

The Australian came close to a podium finish in his home rally earlier this month, but dropped down due to a steering problem. His highest finish of the year was third, in Rally Japan.

Moreover, Atkinson had an impressive run in 2005, with a total of 15 stage wins - more than any driver yet to win the World Championship.

Subaru said the Australian will contest all 16 rounds of the series in 2006, with his current co-driver Glenn Macneall, and the team believes Atkinson is a World Champion in the making.

"Chris has earned his stripes this year and has been awarded this contract entirely on merit," David Lapworth, Subaru World Rally Team Technical Director, commented.

"He has shown enormous potential and has proved that he has that talent to take him to the next level in performance. His speed was apparent from day one and we can see that he has the maturity to achieve good, strong finishes - his outstanding results in Japan and Australia clearly demonstrate this.

"The move is part of a long-term plan to develop Chris at a world-class level and he is taking a step along the path followed by previous Subaru World Champions, such as Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg.

"Chris has had a very professional attitude and if he continues to improve at the same rate he will be a World Championship contender of the future."

Atkinson himself commented: "It's fantastic to have the opportunity to stay with Subaru and I'm looking forward to showing, once more, the speed and the results we've demonstrated in the last part of this year.

"You can't expect too much in your first year and the fact that we're fourth in the number of stages won shows we've got the speed, which is very promising for the future.

"We've fitted in well with the team and with a year's experience behind us, I can't wait to see what we can do."