by Rob Wilkins


Former Subaru World Rally team principal, David Lapworth has predicted that his old team should definitely enjoy a better season next year, after a pretty dismal 2006.

Speaking exclusively to Crash.net Radio at the Wales Rally GB last weekend, Lapworth, who is still very much in the know, through his position at Prodrive, who run the Subaru WRT, added that while Subaru's Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson should both benefit from a more competitive package in 2007, it won't be until 2008, that they will really, really shine.

“We have known for a while that this was going to be a tough period, because of the lifecycle of the car [the Impreza],” he revealed. “Ford has got a new car this year and Citroen have got a new car for next year [with the C4]. Subaru's turn is really the year after - there is a nice step, an interim car next year, which will help.

“It was always going to be a little bit tough [in 2006 though]. But it has been tougher than we expected for sure. I do think the signs are there however that next years interim car is a good step, they [Subaru] have learnt a lot over the last few months, in tracking down some of the problems they have had. As always in those situations you learn a lot more than you think. When you start digging deep and looking for problems it also unearths some good ideas as well. So next year will be better.

“I don't think it will be a great year because that is not the lifecycle, but 2008 should be. They are going in the right direction and confidence will start to build from this point as it gets better.”

Asked about 2007 in general, Lapworth reckons that the battle between Ford and Citroen will be just as close as it was this year, something that meant the battle for the manufacturers' went right down to the penultimate event in New Zealand.

“I would expect it to be a pretty close battle again,” he added, when asked if Ford might have an advantage, considering Citroen will be switching to a new car. “With Citroen's resources and the amount of testing those guys do, they have already probably done more testing with that car than Ford has done with this car, so they should be completely prepared.

“OK there is nothing like the rallies to find out the little gremlin and it is very difficult to simulate real rally situations when you are doing the set-up work. You do need a bit of rally experience to refine things. But they should be very, very close to the optimum when they come in. They have got all the resources, all the equipment and they have spent a huge amount of time on it.

"They started on this car [the C4] before Christian [Loriaux - M-Sport's technical director] started on the ['new'] Ford, so you need to keep that in perspective.”

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