WRC: VW eyeing 2013 entry

Volkswagen has publically stated for the first time its intensions to enter the WRC, possibly as early as 2013.

Speaking at the recent Rallye Deutschland event, where the manufacturer supplied a Scirocco as the official Zero car, VW Motorsport boss Chris Nissen confirmed that the firm was looking closely at entering the sport.

“We’ve been looking into this for more than a year,” he said. “We think it’s very interesting and I have never made a secret out of it. The fact is we are very, very happy to see MINI and now there will be three manufacturers.

“We are very happy with the cooperation of Jean Todt and the FIA. In two or three years we will see even more interesting rally for the spectators and for the people at the races. That’s something we like to hear and we are more than interested.”

Nissen added that he would need to be given the green light by the Volkswagen board in the coming months if the marque was to be ready in time for 2013.

“When we press the button we need about two years and that means if in the short future - I’m talking about the next months - we could make a decision we could be there in 2013 but if not we can be there in 2014,” he said.

“We are really very pleased to see the way the rally is going and we also need to think about the history of motorsport. We have always had cars on the track, especially F1 cars, we have Le Mans cars - which is also a historic race - and we have the rally. The rally has always been there, in different formats, but it has always been there. I really think that the World Rally Championship is one of the most interesting sports in motorsport you can have.”

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Tom Hornsby