Volkswagen Polo R WRC
Lubricants | Castrol EDGE | ||||||||
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Tyres | Michelin competition tyres: 46 cm (18 in) for tarmac events, 38 cm (15 in) for gravel rallies | ||||||||
Competition history (WRC) | |||||||||
Notable entrants | Volkswagen Motorsport Volkswagen Motorsport II | ||||||||
Notable drivers | Jari-Matti Latvala Andreas Mikkelsen Sébastien Ogier | ||||||||
Debut | 2013 Monte Carlo Rally | ||||||||
First win | 2013 Rally Sweden | ||||||||
Last win | 2016 Rally Australia | ||||||||
Last event | 2016 Rally Australia | ||||||||
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Constructors' Championships | 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers | ||||||||
Drivers' Championships | 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers |
The Volkswagen Polo R WRC is a
The Polo R WRC marks
The car was extremely successful from its début, winning 43 of the 53 rallies that it entered, and scoring 37 more podiums.
Development
The Polo R WRC was officially unveiled in May 2011, and spent the next eighteen months in testing, with two-time
The car was originally intended to make its debut at the
Competition history
Début (2013)
Two cars driven by
In its debut season, the car scored six wins in its first eight rallies. After finishing second on the
Ogier had another opportunity to win the title in
At the end of the season, the Polo R WRC had won ten of the thirteen rallies it entered, finished on the podium eight more times, and secured both the Drivers' and Manufacturers' championships at the first attempt.[5][8] In doing so, Ogier and Volkswagen broke Sébastien Loeb and Citroën's streak of nine consecutive World Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championship titles respectively.[34][35]
Title defence (2014)
In anticipation of its title defence in 2014, development of the car continued through the 2013–2014 off-season, with the team introducing a series of performance updates to the car ahead of the 2014 Rallye Monte Carlo.[36] Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala remained with the team,[37] whilst Andreas Mikkelsen's programme was expanded to include all thirteen rounds of the championship,[38][39] but the team did not nominate him to score manufacturer points in Australia.[40][41]
The car's domination continued, winning the first six rallies of the season. Ogier overcame difficult conditions to win in Monte Carlo by over a minute,
Ogier and Latvala had the opportunity to secure the 2014 World Championship for Manufacturers for Volkswagen in the
Ogier had the opportunity to secure his second consecutive drivers' title in France, but lost nine minutes on the first day of the event with a faulty gear selector and a time penalty.[53] Ogier was unable to recover and ultimately finished eleventh, allowing Latvala to take a full twenty-five points out of his championship lead with another win—the first of his career on tarmac—while Mikkelsen matched his career-best result of second place.[54] Despite his problems in France, Ogier entered the penultimate round in Spain with a twenty-seven-point advantage over Latvala. Running first on the road, he was unhindered by thick dust that threatened to obscure the vision of his rivals, and he took a comfortable victory and his second consecutive World Championship.[6] Latvala finished the event second and Mikkelsen seventh.[6] With his second World Championship title secured, Ogier went on to win the Wales Rally GB. Latvala and Mikkelsen struggled throughout, with Latvala finishing eighth and Mikkelsen retiring.[55][56]
Continued dominance (2015)
The second generation of the Polo R WRC was put into development in early 2014, in anticipation of a
Volkswagen Motorsport took a clean sweep of the podium positions in the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally. Ogier won after an early battle with nine-time World Champion Sébastien Loeb—whose one-off guest appearance in a Citroën DS3 WRC came to an abrupt end when he crashed out on the second leg of the event—and recorded another win in Sweden despite losing several minutes in a spin and having to reclaim the rally lead from Mikkelsen. Ogier recorded another victory in Mexico, with Mikkelsen again on the podium. Latvala scored a podium in Monte Carlo, but was forced to retire in Sweden and finished seventeenth in Mexico.[62]
After enduring a difficult
The championship returned to Corsica for the first time in seven years where the teams endured difficult conditions that saw several stages cancelled. Ogier suffered a gearbox problem that forced him to retire from the first leg of the rally while Latvala had to catch Elfyn Evans to secure victory.[64] Mikkelsen was third, having recovered from early difficulties of his own, while Ogier finished seventeenth overall, and the tenth driver eligible to score manufacturer points. Mikkelsen went on to take his maiden WRC victory in Spain when Sébastien Ogier crashed on the final stage, promoting Latvala to second in the process.[65] Ogier finished the year with his eighth win of the season in Wales, with Mikkelsen in third.[66] Latvala crashed out on the opening leg of the rally and after restarting the next day, went on to finish fiftieth overall and was classified as the final driver (9th) eligible to score manufacturer points.[67] Volkswagen Motorsport finished the season with twelve wins (including Mikkelsen's one) from thirteen rallies.[68] Volkswagen Motorsport won with 183 points in front of Citroën WRT, while sister team Volkswagen Motorsport II was classified fifth in the final standings.[68]
Final season (2016)
Despite having made only minor changes to the car during the winter off-season, and faced with the imminent departure of team principal Jost Capito to Formula One team McLaren,[69] Volkswagen Motorsport continued to dominate the 2016 season. Ogier won the opening two rounds in Monte Carlo and Sweden despite difficult conditions that saw several stages of the Rally Sweden route cancelled as rising temperatures saw the roads thaw out, making the studded snow tyres unusable.[70][71] Latvala, however, endured a string of mechanical failures and driver errors that saw him fail to score a single point in the opening rounds.[70][71] He took advantage of his road position to win Rally Mexico while Ogier finished second despite having been first on the road and sweeping loose gravel off the surface.[72] Andreas Mikkelsen remained in the third Polo R, but changed his co-driver for the season, enlisting Anders Jæger as Ola Fløene joined Mads Østberg at M-Sport. Mikkelsen and Jæger started their season with a podium in Monte Carlo and a points finish in Sweden before retiring in Mexico.[70][71][72]
Despite his victory in Mexico, Latvala's resurgence was short-lived as he crashed out of the lead of the next rally in Argentina when his suspension failed at high speed.[73] His accident promoted Ogier to second and Mikkelsen to third behind Hyundai's Hayden Paddon. Latvala rejoined the rally for the final day and was classified sixteenth overall, and the ninth driver eligible to score manufacturer points.[74] The next round in Portugal saw all three Volkswagens struggle with their setup and allow Kris Meeke to establish an early lead. Meeke went on to win the rally ahead of Mikkelsen and Ogier; however, as Meeke was not nominated to score manufacturer points, Mikkelsen and Volkswagen Motorsport II received the full twenty-five points for first place.[75]
The Volkswagens struggled to match the pace of Hyundai's
Latvala spearheaded the team at the next round in
Ogier secured another victory in Corsica, with Hyundai's Thierry Neuville finishing second ahead of Mikkelsen and Latvala in third and fourth. As the championship returned to Catalunya, Ogier and Mikkelsen remained the only drivers in mathematical contention to win the drivers' title. Mikkelsen crashed chasing rally leader Dani Sordo, leaving Ogier needing only to finish in the top two to be champion. Ogier caught Sordo at the end of the second leg of the rally and went on to win both the event and his fourth consecutive World Drivers' Championship. In doing so, Ogier became only the fourth driver—after Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Mäkinen and Sébastien Loeb—to win four championships.[82]
The team entered the penultimate round in Great Britain with an opportunity to secure the manufacturers' championship; Hyundai, the only other team still in mathematical contention, would need to out-score Volkswagen by twenty points to take the championship to the final round in Australia. All three cars were beset by driveshaft problems on the first day of competition, effectively taking Latvala and Mikkelsen out of contention; Ogier had similar problems, but they struck late in the day, and he was largely unaffected. Ogier held off Ott Tänak to secure victory, and with it, Volkswagen's fourth manufacturer title.[83] The final round of the season took place in Australia and saw Mikkelsen claim his third rally win ahead of Ogier and Thierry Neuville, while Latvala finished ninth overall after clipping a guardrail on the opening stage and breaking his suspension.[84]
Project cancellation
With the sport undergoing an overhaul of the technical regulations for the 2017 season,[85] Volkswagen developed the 2017-specification Polo WRC throughout the 2016 season, with the development phase once again carried out by Marcus Grönholm.[86] The car, which officially became known as the Volkswagen Polo GTI WRC,[87] was designed with a larger turbo restrictor, saw increases in the overhang of the front and rear bumpers, as well as larger door sills and a larger rear wing. The overall width of the car was increased, while 25 kg (55.1 lb) was cut from the body shell, and a centre differential was added for the first time.[85][86] Despite extensive testing, the company formally cancelled the development of the car in November 2016 with their withdrawal from the sport. The cancellation was a result of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.[10] Volkswagen later announced plans to maintain a presence in the sport, adopting a customer-oriented approach by developing a Polo rally car built to Group R5 specifications.[88]
Post-WRC career
Although the Polo R WRC was retired from the World Rally Championship at the end of the 2016 season, Volkswagen made the car available to privateer entries on a limited basis starting in 2017.[88] Raimund Baumschlager became the first privateer to enter a Polo R WRC, contesting rounds of the Austrian national championship.[88]
Some of the chassis built in 2013 and 2014 were rebuilt and used by the factory-supported
Complete World Rally Championship results
WRC championship titles
Year | Title | Competitor | Entries | Wins | Podiums | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013
|
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers | Sébastien Ogier | 13 | 9 | 2 | 290 |
FIA World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers | Julien Ingrassia | 13 | 9 | 2 | 290 | |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers
|
Volkswagen Motorsport | 26 | 10 | 8 | 425 | |
2014
|
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers | Sébastien Ogier | 13 | 8 | 2 | 267 |
FIA World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers | Julien Ingrassia | 13 | 8 | 2 | 267 | |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers
|
Volkswagen Motorsport | 26 | 12 | 6 | 447 | |
2015
|
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers | Sébastien Ogier | 13 | 8 | 2 | 253 |
FIA World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers | Julien Ingrassia | 13 | 8 | 2 | 253 | |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers
|
Volkswagen Motorsport | 26 | 11 | 6 | 413 | |
2016
|
FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers | Sébastien Ogier | 14 | 6 | 5 | 268 |
FIA World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers | Julien Ingrassia | 14 | 6 | 5 | 268 | |
FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers
|
Volkswagen Motorsport | 28 | 8 | 6 | 355 |
WRC victories
In detail
(key)
Notes:
- ‡ — Team ineligible to score manufacturer points.
See also
References
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External links
- Volkswagen Motorsport official website Archived 1 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine
- Volkswagen's four years in numbers wrc.com