Subaru pulls out of the WRC

Subaru pulls out of the WRC


http://www.autosport.com/images/upload/1229420289.jpg

Subaru has made a shock announcement that it will pull out of the World Rally Championship with immediate effect.

Just 24 hours after Suzuki quit the series, Subaru cited the worldwide financial economic crisis as to why it will also not continue.

David Richards, the boss of the Prodrive company that runs Subaru's efforts in the WRC, was saddened by the decision which brings to an end a 20-year association.
"Subaru's departure from the World Rally Championship is a great loss as it is one of the sport's icons," said Richards, who helped Prodrive win six WRC titles.

"The Subaru World Rally Team has created true champions such as Colin McRae and Richard Burns and its absence will be felt by many the world over. Although this decision closes a significant chapter in Prodrive's history, our focus now turns to the future."

Richards said Prodrive would look to redeploy their WRC workforce elsewhere in the company - having also confirmed that their customer rally teams will continue.

A statement from Prodrive suggested that they were looking for a swift return to the WRC, especially with new regulations are set to come into force in 2010.

"Looking ahead, 2010 will see the introduction of new World Rally Championship technical regulations, which provide Prodrive with an opportunity to prepare for re-entering the championship with a new team and build on its 24 years of World Rally Championship experience and success," said the statement.

Subaru has struggled to find form with the Impreza in recent years. The last victory was in September 2005, when Petter Solberg took victory in the Rally GB after Sebastien Loeb chose not to triumph following the death of Michael Park. The last win on merit was the Rally Mexico in March 2005.

The long-awaited new Impreza was introduced in the Acropolis Rally in May and, although its performance was originally encouraging with Solberg finishing second in Greece, it was never able to genuinely challenge Citroen or Ford for victories.

The team were hoping to push ahead with the development of the car ahead of next season and were planning to run four cars in 2009.

The withdrawal of Subaru and Suzuki in the last 24 hours leaves just two manufacturers in the sport - Citroen and Ford.


http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72492

bloody hell i didnt see that coming although with chris atkinson crashing so often and petter having a massive drop in form its not suprising, bet latvila's in a customer focus next year and solberg is driving the works focus (fingers crossed)

Sad news. I was just going to post about this after reading the press statement on the Prodrive website.

Subaru has announced its decision to withdraw from the 2009 World Rally Championship.

This sudden decision was in response to the widespread economic downturn that is affecting the entire automotive industry, and follows Suzuki’s withdrawal announced yesterday.
After 20 years in the sport, during which time the Prodrive-run Subaru World Rally Team has won six World Rally Championship titles, this is not only sad news for Subaru and the team, but also for millions of rallying fans around the world. Thanks to its highly successful World Rally Championship programme, Subaru has developed into one of the world’s most widely recognised and evocative automotive brands.
Prodrive chairman, David Richards, said: “Subaru’s departure from the World Rally Championship is a great loss as it is one of the sport’s icons. The Subaru World Rally Team has created true champions such as Colin McRae and Richard Burns and its absence will be felt by many the world over. Although this decision closes a significant chapter in Prodrive’s history, our focus now turns to the future.”
For many, Prodrive and Subaru are synonymous, given the long-standing and close association between the two companies. However, while the Subaru World Rally Team historically represented a significant part of Prodrive’s business, today it accounts for no more than 20 per cent of the company’s turnover.
Prodrive will look to redeploy as many of the rally team as possible in other areas of its business operations, which have grown to span advanced engineering and manufacturing for the automotive, defence, marine and aerospace industries, in addition to other motorsport programmes.
Despite the current economic downturn, Prodrive’s automotive engineering business remains buoyant as it works with vehicle manufacturers to accelerate the development of next generation fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative fuel technologies.
Together with Subaru, Prodrive’s commitment to its customer rally teams will also continue unabated for 2009 and beyond. Over the past 15 years, Prodrive has sold close to 500 rally cars to more than 400 private competitors and independent rally teams in 47 countries. During this time, Prodrive’s customers have won five consecutive Production World Rally Championships and countless international rallies. In 2008, Prodrive-supported customer teams have claimed eight rally championship titles around the world.
Looking ahead, 2010 will see the introduction of new World Rally Championship technical regulations, which provide Prodrive with an opportunity to prepare for re-entering the championship with a new team and build on its 24 years of World Rally Championship experience and success.

http://www.prodrive.com/p_releases.html

Kinda makes the whole constructors championship a little pointless. Suzuki pulled out the other day as well. Shame as I love watching the WRC on Dave. I guess it makes for more varied cars in the top 10 then if there are just privateers running.

Motorsport generally is taking a nose dive currently, it's looking fecking dire!!

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Originally Posted by liveseytowers

Kinda makes the whole constructors championship a little pointless. Suzuki pulled out the other day as well. Shame as I love watching the WRC on Dave. I guess it makes for more varied cars in the top 10 then if there are just privateers running.

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doubt it ford will keep pumping the customer cars out in a vain attempt to stop leob i remember watching a wrc event this year and 6 of the top ten were fords then there were 2 citroens and 2 subaru's, when theres 2 works cars, 2 stobart cars and 2 munchies cars all out there theres not a lot of points left for everyone else,

you never know maybe subaru/ prodrive will do what citroen did when they had a year out and they came back with the c4 wrc

if it keeps more subaru 'want to be rally drivers' off the road - got to be a good thing!

sadly though prices of early models are dropping to 'chav' level - more death and mayhem on the roads!!

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Originally Posted by spinneymede

if it keeps more subaru 'want to be rally drivers' off the road - got to be a good thing!

sadly though prices of early models are dropping to 'chav' level - more death and mayhem on the roads!!

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m8 early impressa's have been affordable for years and the more recent ones arent that much anymore, (although the newist ugly one is quite expensive probably why they lost a bundle of cash and pulled out the wrc)

also "death and mayhem on the roads!!" wtf? where do you live in the death race film ? lol

this is big news, and not in a good way for wrc, the problem with it is its going back to the group b days were you can spend what you like, so the top 2 or 3 teams, well 2 now lol can keep on going but the rest just fade away. Ford could be next, they are seeking help from the usa goverment at present.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spinneymede

if it keeps more subaru 'want to be rally drivers' off the road - got to be a good thing!

sadly though prices of early models are dropping to 'chav' level - more death and mayhem on the roads!!

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the mark one scooby is the fastest pile of shite for the money since the xr3i days. a good mark one will cost ya about 2 grand, but a dog can go for next to nothing so yeah, lots of power open to the young "race drivers" lol

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Originally Posted by casio

m8 early impressa's have been affordable for years and the more recent ones arent that much anymore, (although the newist ugly one is quite expensive probably why they lost a bundle of cash and pulled out the wrc)

also "death and mayhem on the roads!!" wtf? where do you live in the death race film ? lol

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death and mayhem from young subaru drivers - not any film but

a) a friend who is a traffic cop
b) friend who drives an ambulance
c) friend who does accident recovery and has a scrap vehicle business - every time there are icy conditions he gets a spate of subaru's and evo's - new young drivers fail to realise that 4 wheel drive means nothing on black ice!
d) in the last year our small village has seen two separate deaths of young subaru drivers within 2 weeks of ownership

its a coincidence m8 inexperienced drivers are going to crash more irrespective of the car their in, ive seen way more nova's and saxo's smashed in to a tree/wall over the years than subaru's, im not saying there isnt a bit of "race driver" infulence on these kids that hurt them selfs but in truth all people when they first pass their tests think theyre 1, invincible and 2, could out drive loeb, its experience on things like black ice, aquaplaning, snow, oil on a wet round about that enable you to be safe not the car that you drive

id blame the drivers rather than the car, and if you must blame the car im sure more kids die in saxos than die in impressa's