Rally News

[Kriss]

Raikkonen enters under Ice 1 title
By Matt Beer and David Evans Friday, January 14th 2011, 14:06 GMT


Kimi Raikkonen's 2011 World Rally Championship programme will run under the Ice 1 Racing name, as Citroen moves away from the Citroen Junior banner for its satellite entries.

The 2007 Formula 1 world champion's entry for Rally Sweden in a new Citroen DS3 was finally confirmed earlier this week, and has been lodged under the new title.

Raikkonen's fellow privateer DS3 WRC driver Petter Solberg has yet to firm up his team name for the season. Solberg is expected to be entered for the season-opening Rally of Sweden by Citroen under his own Petter Solberg World Rally Team name, but his team manager Ken Rees admitted nothing was confirmed beyond round one.

"For Mexico [round two] we're not sure if we'll stay as the Petter Solberg World Rally Team or move into some sort of Citroen team, this has still to be agreed," he said.

Citroen team principal Olivier Quesnel is keen not to retain the Citroen Junior Team name which has been used for the last two years.

"We don't really need the Junior team name as we don't have any junior drivers coming through there, so it will be changed," Quesnel said.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88924

[sleenster]

http://twitter.com/Traxx_WiF/statuses/26063811278540800
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8005/equipeds3.jpg

Citroën completely full

Both DS3s available for rent have been sold where Solberg, Raikkonen and Van Merksteijn will share them.

In Sweden, on the opening round of the 2011 World Rally Championship (from February 10 to 13), Ford will have the advantage in numbers. Eight Fiesta WRCs (or even a ninth for PG Andersson) will initially compete against four Citroën DS3s: two reserved for official pilots Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier and two privately retained by Kimi Räikkönen and Petter Solberg. "Our goal is to be world champions, not to put as many cars on the road as possible," said Olivier Quesnel, director of Citroën Racing. "We tried to find a way for the participation of Kimi and Petter, with whom we have very good relations, so that they are part of the team. But we do not seek to unduly expand this activity." The philosophy differs at M-Sport, which produces Fords and funds its business by selling the largest number of cars.

On the Citroën side, there is demand since the Dutchman Peter Van Merksteijn was first to announce in early December that he would have the replacement of the C4 WRC for ten rounds this season. "He has had to make concessions for Solberg to have the car in Sweden," appreciates Quesnel. Van Merksteijn will probably have to find another way to participate if Raikkonen and Solberg intend to participate in the entire championship because the fifth DS3 will not be available before the Rally of Sardinia, which is in early May.

Contrary to what has done since 2009, there will be no Citroen Junior Team this year. "Its mission was to train a pilot," said Quesnel. "We have invested in Ogier, and he has joined the official team, therefore the Junior Team has been more than justified." So it is with their own money and sponsors, and under their own colors, Petter Solberg (Petter Solberg World Rally Team) and Kimi Räikkönen (Ice 1 Racing) will be driving in Sweden. "Their respective programs have yet to be finalized due to budget reasons. Everything was done at the last minute, so there are still many things to be worked out," says the director of Citroën Racing. "Our customers will benefit from testing sessions throughout the season but will be autonomous in the rallies as they will have their own engineers and mechanics, with technical support from Citroën. The cars however, are owned by Citroën and will be brought back to the factory between rallies."

[luieluv]

http://twitter.com/Traxx_WiF/statuses/26063811278540800
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8005/equipeds3.jpg

Citroën completely full

Both DS3s available for rent have been sold where Solberg, Raikkonen and Van Merksteijn will share them.

In Sweden, on the opening round of the 2011 World Rally Championship (from February 10 to 13), Ford will have the advantage in numbers. Eight Fiesta WRCs (or even a ninth for PG Andersson) will initially compete against four Citroën DS3s: two reserved for official pilots Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier and two privately retained by Kimi Räikkönen and Petter Solberg. "Our goal is to be world champions, not to put as many cars on the road as possible," said Olivier Quesnel, director of Citroën Racing. "We tried to find a way for the participation of Kimi and Petter, with whom we have very good relations, so that they are part of the team. But we do not seek to unduly expand this activity." The philosophy differs at M-Sport, which produces Fords and funds its business by selling the largest number of cars.

On the Citroën side, there is demand since the Dutchman Peter Van Merksteijn was first to announce in early December that he would have the replacement of the C4 WRC for ten rounds this season. "He has had to make concessions for Solberg to have the car in Sweden," appreciates Quesnel. Van Merksteijn will probably have to find another way to participate if Raikkonen and Solberg intend to participate in the entire championship because the fifth DS3 will not be available before the Rally of Sardinia, which is in early May.

Contrary to what has done since 2009, there will be no Citroen Junior Team this year. "Its mission was to train a pilot," said Quesnel. "We have invested in Ogier, and he has joined the official team, therefore the Junior Team has been more than justified." So it is with their own money and sponsors, and under their own colors, Petter Solberg (Petter Solberg World Rally Team) and Kimi Räikkönen (Ice 1 Racing) will be driving in Sweden. "Their respective programs have yet to be finalized due to budget reasons. Everything was done at the last minute, so there are still many things to be worked out," says the director of Citroën Racing. "Our customers will benefit from testing sessions throughout the season but will be autonomous in the rallies as they will have their own engineers and mechanics, with technical support from Citroën. The cars however, are owned by Citroën and will be brought back to the factory between rallies."

own engineers and own mechanics???
If i understand it correctly then Ice 1 Racing will have to employ a whole set of engineers and mechanics which would be trained and assisted by Citroen Technical team.

In this case who would be kimi's main engineer?

[sleenster]

own engineers and own mechanics???
If i understand it correctly then Ice 1 Racing will have to employ a whole set of engineers and mechanics which would be trained and assisted by Citroen Technical team.

In this case who would be kimi's main engineer?

As I understood it, Citroen will provide the engineers and mechanics (which are trained by Citroen) but Ice 1 Racing will have to pay for them.

[luieluv]

own engineers and own mechanics???
If i understand it correctly then Ice 1 Racing will have to employ a whole set of engineers and mechanics which would be trained and assisted by Citroen Technical team.

In this case who would be kimi's main engineer?

As I understood it, Citroen will provide the engineers and mechanics (which are trained by Citroen) but Ice 1 Racing will have to pay for them.

Wll could be but i guess that was not the case with Petter's team last year so why would be an exception for kimi. Or was it same with petter too last season?

[sleenster]

own engineers and own mechanics???
If i understand it correctly then Ice 1 Racing will have to employ a whole set of engineers and mechanics which would be trained and assisted by Citroen Technical team.

In this case who would be kimi's main engineer?

As I understood it, Citroen will provide the engineers and mechanics (which are trained by Citroen) but Ice 1 Racing will have to pay for them.

Wll could be but i guess that was not the case with Petter's team last year so why would be an exception for kimi. Or was it same with petter too last season?

It could be that Petter and Kimi's situations are slightly different. Petter already has engineers and mechanics so they can be trained by Citroen but Kimi doesn't so it would be easiest for Citroen to provide the engineers and mechanics for Kimi and Kimi just has to pay for them.

[luieluv]

own engineers and own mechanics???
If i understand it correctly then Ice 1 Racing will have to employ a whole set of engineers and mechanics which would be trained and assisted by Citroen Technical team.

In this case who would be kimi's main engineer?

As I understood it, Citroen will provide the engineers and mechanics (which are trained by Citroen) but Ice 1 Racing will have to pay for them.

Wll could be but i guess that was not the case with Petter's team last year so why would be an exception for kimi. Or was it same with petter too last season?

It could be that Petter and Kimi's situations are slightly different. Petter already has engineers and mechanics so they can be trained by Citroen but Kimi doesn't so it would be easiest for Citroen to provide the engineers and mechanics for Kimi and Kimi just has to pay for them.

Point taken. I hope thats the case too. That would be good for Ice 1 Racing.

[Loiste]

Point taken. I hope thats the case too. That would be good for Ice 1 Racing.

It would be nice to ask Cedric Mazenq on FB - will he remain Kimi's race engineer? But I'm not sure he'll answer

[miezicat]

Rallye-Magazin has an interesting article about pace notes. at Rally Germany they asked the co-drivers to show them the first page of the first SS to compare them.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9186/39846808.jpg
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5250/77352284.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2386/52639974.jpg
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2672/84628662.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/989/11519021.jpg
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/5209/20657788.jpg
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2223/17874655.jpg
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6558/88880409.jpg

I have translated the part about Kimi's pace notes

Basis: special (identical to finnish colleagues) nearly DIN A4 with ring connection to open (for change of pages). With pencil, depending on effort corrected or changed. One book for one day. No SS index. Paging ascending with total number.

Style: classic, static from top to bottom in Finnish (like Tommi Mäkinen). Meter information. First direction, “V” (=Vasen) for left, “O” (=Oikealle) for right, then curve radius in numbers from “1” (hair-pin) to “6” (full). To give Kimi detailed road information, Kaj is working with many symbols and signs like “adh” (narrow), “h” (directly), “Ω “ (wave), “Ø” (cut) “!” (Caution), “TA” (full) and words like “RIST” for junction, “TAKA” (short hair-pin) etc.
In their first WRC year Kaj and Kimi are optimising the pace notes by amount and content of information all the time. Like Block a WRC rookie, Kimi has to learn very quickly to get precise pace notes on unknown roads. On the first page Kaj leaves some space for possible additional information.

Here: 21 pages for SS 1/4
Detail: “L” – (Lähtö), 30 meter (“30”), right full (“O6”)

[Kriss]

thanks miezicat

[Mar]

own engineers and own mechanics???
If i understand it correctly then Ice 1 Racing will have to employ a whole set of engineers and mechanics which would be trained and assisted by Citroen Technical team.

In this case who would be kimi's main engineer?

As I understood it, Citroen will provide the engineers and mechanics (which are trained by Citroen) but Ice 1 Racing will have to pay for them.

Wll could be but i guess that was not the case with Petter's team last year so why would be an exception for kimi. Or was it same with petter too last season?

It could be that Petter and Kimi's situations are slightly different. Petter already has engineers and mechanics so they can be trained by Citroen but Kimi doesn't so it would be easiest for Citroen to provide the engineers and mechanics for Kimi and Kimi just has to pay for them.

Point taken. I hope thats the case too. That would be good for Ice 1 Racing.

+1

[Mar]

Rallye-Magazin has an interesting article about pace notes. at Rally Germany they asked the co-drivers to show them the first page of the first SS to compare them.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9186/39846808.jpg
http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/5250/77352284.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2386/52639974.jpg
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2672/84628662.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/989/11519021.jpg
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/5209/20657788.jpg
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2223/17874655.jpg
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6558/88880409.jpg

I have translated the part about Kimi's pace notes

Basis: special (identical to finnish colleagues) nearly DIN A4 with ring connection to open (for change of pages). With pencil, depending on effort corrected or changed. One book for one day. No SS index. Paging ascending with total number.

Style: classic, static from top to bottom in Finnish (like Tommi Mäkinen). Meter information. First direction, “V” (=Vasen) for left, “O” (=Oikealle) for right, then curve radius in numbers from “1” (hair-pin) to “6” (full). To give Kimi detailed road information, Kaj is working with many symbols and signs like “adh” (narrow), “h” (directly), “Ω “ (wave), “Ø” (cut) “!” (Caution), “TA” (full) and words like “RIST” for junction, “TAKA” (short hair-pin) etc.
In their first WRC year Kaj and Kimi are optimising the pace notes by amount and content of information all the time. Like Block a WRC rookie, Kimi has to learn very quickly to get precise pace notes on unknown roads. On the first page Kaj leaves some space for possible additional information.

Here: 21 pages for SS 1/4
Detail: “L” – (Lähtö), 30 meter (“30”), right full (“O6”)

Thanks!
I love to see how pacenotes books really look like.

[Loiste]

thanks! Elena's pacenotes are so accurate!

[sleenster]

Thanks miezicat , that is really cool.

[Julia]

Oh dear, what will become of the six-year-plan...

Wilson waiting on full WRC programme

14 Jan 11

Matthew Wilson says he cannot wait for the 2011 World Rally Championship to start, even though he only has a drive firmed up for the opening event of the season in Sweden next month.

“But I’ve had fantastic support from the Stobart Group over the years and any support they can give me is always a bonus. We’re still discussing things for this year and hopefully we can work something out.”

http://www.wrc.com/news/wilson-waiting- ... ?fid=14033

hmmm... have to say that i was little wondering who was funding the sixth year of the five year project ... because reading other forums I surely got a picture that it really was a five -year project atleast to storbart ... but it seem that Wilson jr is hoping that storbart is changing their mind about it.

but have to say that i looks a little bit strange that M-sport keeps storbart in the name even isnt putting money in the team and their two main drivers (henning & mads) are paying fully for their seat ... but then again if they still hope that storbart will change its mind and continue a sixt year of sponsoring... and to ad a twist in that saga atleast totalrallyguys said ones that wilson sr and storbart boss are goos friends and storbart is also responsible for m-sports logstics... but to try to put preassure on storbart through the official site doesnt sound like a good idee atleast to me... ok, we probably dont know the whole story but, but.....

so is rally sweden make or brake for wilson?
he has been talking all autumn how much he has miles in the new car and how it is going to help him be nearer the top... so he probably has to proove it befor getting a season payed.