The 2015 World Rally Championship season gets underway with the Monte Carlo Rally this weekend, with French legend Sebastien Loeb making a one-off appearance for Citroën.
The nine-times WRC champion ended his full-time WRC career as champion at the end of 2012 before contesting four events last season, and with a record of seven victories in his ten Monte Carlo starts, Loeb’s presence will threaten Volkswagen’s WRC hegemony.
VW has dominated the sport since entering WRC at the beginning of 2013 with a team of Polos, taking a clean sweep in both the driver and constructor titles in the last two years following five seasons of Citroën dominance. In 2014 Sébastien Ogier secured the drivers title for the second consecutive time, with his VW team-mates Jari-Matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen in second and third.
The three-car works VW team is back this year with the same trio of drivers in a significantly updated car, with its sights set firmly on another successful defence of its titles.
HYUNDAI TO IMPROVE?
Last season saw Hyundai return to the championship as a manufacturer for the first time in a decade, but the Korean team found the going tough against the all-dominant VWs, and also battled against the scaled-back Citroën works team and privately-run Ford outfit. Hyundai ended the season fourth in the constructors’ title and sixth placed Thierry Neuville its highest scorer in the drivers’ championship, but the team signalled its intent by taking first and second places in the German Rally and also had podium finishes in Mexico and Poland.
Belgium’s Neuville is back again this season spearheading Hyundai’s three-car works campaign, supported again by Spain’s Dani Sordo and New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon. Ford will this year be represented by four privately-entered Fiestas, including one driven by former F1 star Robert Kubica. Citroën’s season-long campaign will have Kris Meeke and Mads Ostberg behind the wheel.The Monte Carlo Rally starts today and ends on Sunday. -Mercury Motoring
FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) 2015 season
22-25 January - Rally Monte Carlo
12-15 February - Rally Sweden
5-8 March - Rally Mexico
23-26 April - Rally Argentina
21-24 May - Rally Portugal
11-14 June - Rally Italy
2-5 July - Rally Poland
30 July-2 August - Rally Finland
20-23 August - Rally Germany
10-13 September - Rally Australia
1-4 October - Rally France
22-25 October - Rally Spain
12-15 November - Rally Great Britain