Why Meeke shouldn't have been benched

It was the best and the worst day of Kris Meeke's year to date. He was back behind the wheel of a Mini John Cooper Works WRC, where he was meant to be spending most of this year. And next year. Yes, it was cold, wet asphalt, but not the right cold, wet asphalt; he was testing Eugene Donnelly's car for Galway, not warming up the number 52 machine on the Monte.

Meeke still doesn't want to talk about what's gone on at Mini, but stepping out of the car he's shaking down for Donnelly, he can't really help himself.

"This is doing my nut," he says with a thin smile and a shake of his head. "That, there," he adds pointing to the driving seat, "that's all I want to do."

And that's all he has to say.

It remains hard to believe that Meeke's dream drive has been whipped from under him.

Sitting waiting for the plane back from round one, I found some of the Prodrive technicians pondering a Pastis in Nice airport. While they were celebrating a third podium in seven rounds, I asked them when they thought they would next be in the top three on a WRC round.

Having spoiled their evening, I moved on.

And there's the rub. Everybody knows about Dani Sordo's pace on asphalt. He's right there, right with Sebastien Loeb on that surface. But on snow in Sweden next week? And then on the dirt in Mexico and Portugal and so on and so on? He's not right there with Loeb.

Don't get me wrong, Sordo is a lovely bloke and an exceptional rally driver. But, in my opinion, he's not as fast as Meeke on the loose.

Meeke was a career-best fourth on his home WRC event last year... © LAT

Yes, Meeke would probably have put the car off the road a couple more times than Sordo will do in 2012, but I'm sure the results would have been better. And, more pertinently, let's not forget the talk of Cowley early last year, when the team was being launched in that famous old factory. Meeke, we were told, was the driver with the longer deal (until the end of 2013) because he was the backbone of this operation; he was the one everything was being built around.

Fifty years on, Meeke was to Prodrive what his fellow Northern Irishman Paddy Hopkirk had been to Abingdon.

This nod to history made complete sense for the future. Until now.

This was supposed to be Meeke's big chance. You know, similar to the chances Sordo has had since he started driving Citroen's World Rally Cars in 2006. Like I said, I don't mean to berate Sordo here, more the position Mini is in and the subsequent decision over which driver to take.

And who took that decision? Ah, this is where it gets interesting. Banbury says BMW took the decision, BMW insists the final say was made in Oxfordshire. In the end, like I say, it doesn't matter who got or gave the nod, what matters is that this was supposed to be the Mini line-up: Meeke and Sordo.

I don't doubt there are a number of you out there who would say Meeke's had his chance. And I agree. Backing from Colin McRae, a couple of years in a factory Citroen junior car and two seasons in Peugeot's IRC frontrunner. Difference is, Meeke's made them stick with a title and rally wins.

In some ways, Meeke's history is part of the problem. He's been around for a while, yet he doesn't have a vast experience of the world championship. That's not for the want of trying on his part. Or for the lack of promises.

Meeke's been here before. Twice.

...but had to look on as Sordo made the podium on the Monte © LAT

Back in 2004, he had a signed agreement with Renault to drive a Clio in the Junior WRC. This was the kind of full factory drive that would lift him out of a cash-strapped Opel and into the kind of machinery Brice Tirabassi had used to win the title the previous season.

Everything was done when Meeke got on the plane to come home. By the time he got off the plane, a Belgian driver had found 300,000 reasons why he should be in the car instead.

A year later and, after numerous tests, 12 drivers were whittled down to two for a Subaru seat alongside Petter Solberg. Meeke was, once again, in the frame. The deal was he and Chris Atkinson would both drive for the team, one rally on and one rally off - when they weren't in an Impreza WRC, they would compete in a Group N car. Then came the budget cuts from Japan and a fistful of Aussie dollars from the Atkinson camp. In fairness, looking at Atko's final season with Subaru, employing the Queenslander was a damned good choice.

But what could Meeke have done?

Last year gave us a small insight. Let's stack Meeke's first six factory World Rally Car rides against the man of the moment, Sebastien Ogier.

Six rides into Ogier's Citroen stretch in 2009 and he was staring down the barrel of a gun. It wasn't working for him at all, he'd knocked corners off the car and struggled to find any rhythm in a car that Loeb used to rule the world. And then came Ogier's moment of inspiration, the Acropolis Rally and second place. Click. Job done. His seat was signed and sealed.

Meeke's first six netted four mechanically related retirements, a fifth and a fourth. And Meeke was in a Mini.

Not happy just to sit back and accept Meeke's lot, I decided to do a bit more digging around Banbury to find out why he's on the bench. Predictably, nobody was willing to say anything on the record, but there were plenty ready to spill once the notepad had been stowed.

Meeke's first regular WRC outings came in an Opel in 2003-04 © LAT

"Do you know," one source said, conspiratorially, "how many PR days Dani did last year?"

I didn't.

"Eight."

"Do you know how many Kris did?"

I didn't.

"Thirty seven."

And one of those 37 involved wearing lederhosen in Munich. So that must count as two...

"We just don't get it," adds my friend. "Nobody in the team gets it. We all know there's politics here between us and BMW, but for us boys it seems a pretty straightforward choice in terms of speed to take Kris for the gravel. Kris has worked his socks off for us. Every time the car's had to go to Warwick for some sort of test, he's been there and he's driven it. Every time. It really knocked the stuffing out of the team when this happened. We're just hoping some money can be found for another car for him. And soon."

But what chance? When the team has enjoyed three podiums from seven rallies and not managed to source either the kind of title sponsor that would return Meeke to his rightful seat or fresh agreement from BMW in Germany, what chance is there when - how do we put this politely? - the chances of podiums from the next seven rallies are reasonably remote.

And, I'm sorry, I still don't get Germany's resistance to engaging with this programme. I understand fully that Prodrive's original agreement was for X number of pounds to make and run the cars, with the cash coming from the commercial deals off the back of the programme. In a nutshell, BMW was supplying some parts, some beer money for the boys and the name.

But look what it's got. It's got arguably the best brand fit in years. Maybe labeling the Countryman the new Quattro would be taking it a bit far, but certainly there's a case for an Impreza analogy. The WRC is perfect for Mini's off-roader and the marketability of the programme mind boggling.

BMW's DTM return has diverted funds away from the Mini WRC programme © LAT

And still the millions go towards a blinged repmobile in a German championship.

Pound for pound, I'd like to see BMW's return on its DTM investment coming anywhere near what it gets from Mini in rallying. Executed correctly, Mini's return to the Monte Carlo Rally last month would have been a world event, it would have garnered more column inches and more air time than anything outside of Formula 1. In terms of wasted opportunities, they don't come much bigger than that.

Now, it seems, with the future of the programme in doubt altogether, and a decision by BMW on what it plans to do in rallying due imminently, there could be ramifications for a few more team members.

What about Meeke. How did he cope with the Monte? He went snowboarding. Or, at least, he did for the first morning.

"I wanted to fall out with it," he says quietly. "So off I went, into the mountains. Forget it."

But he couldn't.

"No, I couldn't. I'm a rally man through and through. And this was the Monte. I was glued to it after that. I love this sport."

It would be nice if the sport returned some of that affection...