| This article needs to be
updated
.
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
(
June 2021
)
|
Auto racing factory team by Volkswagen
The
Volkswagen Motorsport
was a works rally team of the
German
car manufacturer
Volkswagen
, who competed in the
World Rally Championship
(WRC) and
Dakar Rally
.
The team started competing in WRC in
1978
and used different specs of
Volkswagen Golfs
before leaving the sport in
1990
. Volkswagen competed at the
Dakar Rally
from 2003 to 2011, claiming three overall wins. The team made its WRC comeback in
2011 Rally Finland
with a pair of
?koda Fabia S2000s
, and competed with the
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
from the start of the
2013 World Rally Championship season
to the end of the
2016 World Rally Championship season
.
At the end of the 2016 season, Volkswagen Motorsport decided to withdraw from the FIA World Rally Championship.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Dakar (2003?2011)
[
edit
]
In 2003, Volkswagen entered the Tarek 2WD buggy at the
Dakar Rally
, with Stephane Henrard placing 6th outright. The Race Touareg 1 was introduced in 2004, when Bruno Saby finished 6th. In 2005,
Jutta Kleinschmidt
finished in 3rd overall. With the Race Touareg 2,
Giniel de Villiers
finished in 2nd place overall in 2006. In 2007, Mark Miller finished 4th overall. Volkswagen won the
2009
,
2010
and
2011 Dakar Rally
, the latter with the Race Touareg 3, with drivers De Villiers,
Carlos Sainz
and
Nasser Al-Attiyah
.
2011?2012
[
edit
]
In
2011
Volkswagen competed with seven different drivers in four rallies (Rally Finland,
Rallye Deutschland
,
Rally Catalunya
and
Wales Rally GB
). German Christian Riedemann was the only driver competing in two rallies.
In November 2011, the team revealed they have made a multi-year contract with the French rally star
Sebastien Ogier
and his co-driver
Julien Ingrassia
.
For
2012 season
, Volkswagen Motorsport continued developing their
Polo R World Rally Car
and they also completed a full WRC-campaign (except
New Zealand
) with a pair of ?koda Fabias. Sebastien Ogier drove it in every round of the campaign, while the second car was shared between Andreas Mikkelsen and
Kevin Abbring
. The team had a third car in their home rally
Germany
driven by
Sepp Wiegand
.
The season included some highlights, including Sebastien Ogier's unexpected special stage win in
Sardinia
. Ogier's fifth place in Sardinia also remains the best ever overall finish for a
S2000 car
in World Rally Championship.
[2]
Also important to mention that Mikkelsen was the first ever S2000 driver to score Power Stage points, which he did during
2012 Rallye Deutschland
by finishing 3rd on the penultimate stage.
In October, Volkswagen Motorsport announced that they have signed
Jari-Matti Latvala
with his co-driver Miikka Anttila to join Ogier and Ingrassia to drive
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
for
2013 season
.
[3]
2013
[
edit
]
Volkswagen Motorsport entered as a fully-fledged manufacturer team in 2013.
Sebastien Ogier
and
Jari-Matti Latvala
started the season, whilst
Andreas Mikkelsen
joined the championship at the fourth round in Portugal. Mikkelsen and his new co-driver
Mikko Markkula
were registered under a second manufacturer team, known as “Volkswagen Motorsport II” so as to give them as much time as possible testing the Polo R WRC.
[4]
The
2013 season
started with
Rallye Monte-Carlo
. Volkswagen entered the rally with two cars, Latvala/Anttila and Ogier/Ingrassia. Ogier started their campaign with a dream start by winning the very first stage of the season, and the first of
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
.
[5]
Ogier won one more stage and finished the rally in second place, nearly two minutes behind the winner
Sebastien Loeb
. Jari-Matti Latvala's rally ended in last evening of the rally when he hit the wall in slippery conditions.
The team took its first WRC victory in their second rally with the World Rally Car, when Sebastien Ogier dominated the
Rally Sweden
being fastest in half of the stages of the rally.
[6]
Jari-Matti Latvala finished fourth, and also scored his first stage win with the team.
Ogier continued his dominance at the next event in
Rally Mexico
, giving the team its second victory in a row. Ogier won 16 out of 23 stages and lead the rally from the second stage till the finish. Latvala hit a rock in SS2 and after restarting in Day 2 he eventually finished outside of the points. That meant Volkswagen was still 6 points behind Citroen in Manufacturers' standings before moving on to
Rally de Portugal
.
[7]
2014
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
January 2015
)
|
2015
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
January 2015
)
|
2016
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
August 2016
)
|
2016
would turn out to be another successful year for the team; as they collected their fourth consecutive manufacturers’ championship, and
Sebastien Ogier
claimed his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship.
Just days after the
2016 Wales Rally GB
, Volkswagen announced that they would be pulling out of the WRC at the end of the 2016 season. This came as a surprise to many fans and journalists, as the team and their drivers had already been conducting major development and testing work on the new
2017
Polo, based on the new generation WRC cars. Although no direct reason was given for the teams’ withdrawal, it was widely speculated to be a result of Volkswagen’s recent
emissions scandal
.
2018
[
edit
]
Volkswagen Motorsport made a return to the World Rally Championship with an
R5
version of the
Volkswagen Polo GTI
. The car made its debut at the
2018 Rally Catalunya
, with entries for both
Petter Solberg
and
Eric Camilli
.
[8]
2019
[
edit
]
In November 2019, Volkswagen announced that, consistent with its shift in focus to emphasize the manufacturing of
electric vehicles
, it would end all motorsport programmes that do not involve electric vehicles.
[9]
Complete WRC results
[
edit
]
WRC victories
[
edit
]
Dakar Rally results
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Ownership
| |
---|
Divisions and
subsidiaries
| Passenger cars
| |
---|
Commercial vehicles
| |
---|
Motorcycles
| |
---|
Engines
| |
---|
Services
| |
---|
Geographic
| |
---|
|
---|
Shareholdings
| |
---|
Products and
technologies
| |
---|
Discontinued brands
| |
---|
Places
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Motorsport
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|
|