Mini WRC will be 'sensational' posted in WRC15 | 01 | 2011
THE MAN who took Lanark ace Colin McRae to the world rally championship, Prodrive boss Dave Richards, believes his company's 'no compromise' approach with its new Mini WRC will prove extremely successful.
Richards, and his Banbury-based Prodrive team, powered McRae to the 1995 world title in their Subaru Impreza, but the outfit lost the works' deal when the Japanese manufacturer pulled out of the WRC in 2008.
Following that disappointment, Prodrive created a "generic WRC car" and then set out to find a suitable manufacturer with a product that fitted it. This was the route the successful company preferred rather than seeking a new partner and then adapting one of their road car designs to WRC rules.
"When you go production car racing or rallying, you take the car, you look at the regulations and you adapt the car," Richards said today at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham. "You inevitably go through compromises because the car is not quite right here and there.
"I said why don't we flip the thing upside down and do it completely differently. Let's design a car that would be the ultimate car by the regulations, then when we take the cars, every time you make a compromise you'll know what level of compromise you're having to make there and find ways round it. It's actually proven to be a great way of producing a car. The car, the chassis, everything, it's sensational."
McRae protege, 2009 IRC champ Kris Meeke, will lead the two-car Mini assault. The Irishman will be partnered by ex-Citroen number two Dani Sordo, and Richards believes the Spaniard's experience will be invaluable to Mini.
"He's got immediate relevance, information and knowledge of how the world championship-winning teams been operating for last five years," Richards continued. "He will be a great contributor to the team.
"Kris is also a great driver, he's to my mind never had the opportunities he's deserved. Colin McRae was his mentor which obviously has great affection within Prodrive as well."
Video: Dave Richards on Mini WRC, Kris Meeke and Colin McRae
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Jim McGill