WRC » Subaru: New car will put us back in mix

They have to enter the new car from Round 1. As we saw this year, it went down to the wire and Citroen entered the C4 from Round 1, and Ford entered the 2007 car into the 2006 Austrlian Rally iirc. Subaru cant afford to be 30 points behind Loeb/Latvala/Hirvonen after 5 rounds, and then enter the new Impreza...

...having said that, we all know it wont arrive before Round 3: that would mean they could challenge for the title, something they havent bothered to do in 4 years.

So your telling me that Subaru have ruined the Impreza and made it look like a Kia just because they wanted a hatchback to use as a rally car? The new Impreza looks crap for the road and has a down sized engine so i doubt it will be any good as a race car

Yeh the new Subaru looks like its a reject from the Dihatsu factory.

They will enter the new car in Mexico as always, peter usually does well there to.

Tarmac has always been Subarus big killer, the day Subaru wins on tarmac (dry) is a day they can celebrate and be world champions again.

James, would you agree that Subaru wont ever be able to challenge the Citroen/Loed partnership on Tarmac? Thats my personal view, because i dont think that Subaru have the car or drivers to win.

Personally, i rate Dani Sordo, Sebastien Loeb, Gilles Panizzi and Francois Duval (when he keeps it on the Tarmac!) as the best Tarmac drivers.

Also, Subaru wont ever win with Chris Crashkinson on the team.

Not having the car ready for the first round is a MAJOR mistake IMO.

Why they haven't been round the clock getting it ready for monte is beyond me. We all know the current cars is not competative at all and should be retired asap! Why waste time on the current car when that time could be spent on the new one! Why waste the opportunity to gain points and exp with the new car? Unless they want to start at a disadvantage from the start and be 20+ points in the hole.

I heard rumours that they will run the interim car until August time before using the hatchback version. But that could just be a rumour.

The WRC desperately needs Petter and Subaru to perform well, I can't help but think he should have gone to Ford at the end of last season though........

Doesn't really matter which car Subaru choose to use, the Championship is made up of both tarmac and gravel, they always used to blame Pirelli for poor tarmac performance- can't do that this time!! Petter's great but even his enthusiasm/commitment is being tested, but why oh why do they insist in carrying on with Atkinson!..

not having the car at round one plus the fact that atkinson is a crasher will simply heap more pressure on solberg to get the results the team badly need.sadly i can see next years championshi being an easy year for loeb

If they can supply Chris with a good car I'm sure everyone will be surprised with what he can do!