Volkswagen Motorsport

Volkswagen Motorsport
Full name	Volkswagen Motorsport
Base	Hannover, Germany
Team principal(s)	Jost Capito
Technical director	Willy Rampf
Drivers	Jari-Matti Latvala; Sébastien Ogier; Andreas Mikkelsen
Co-drivers	Miikka Anttila; Julien Ingrassia; Anders Jæger
Chassis	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
Tyres	M Michelin
World Rally Championship history
Debut	2013 Monte Carlo Rally
Last event	2016 Rally Australia
Manufacturers' Championships	4 (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)
Drivers' Championships	4 (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)
Rally wins	44

The Volkswagen Motorsport was a works rally team of the German car manufacturer Volkswagen, who competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC) and Dakar Rally.

The team started competing in WRC in 1978 and used different specs of Volkswagen Golfs before leaving the sport in 1990. Volkswagen competed at the Dakar Rally from 2003 to 2011, claiming three overall wins. The team made its WRC comeback in 2011 Rally Finland with a pair of Škoda Fabia S2000s, and competed with the Volkswagen Polo R WRC from the start of the 2013 World Rally Championship season to the end of the 2016 World Rally Championship season.

At the end of the 2016 season, Volkswagen Motorsport decided to withdraw from the FIA World Rally Championship.^[1]

History

Dakar (2003–2011)

In 2003, Volkswagen entered the Tarek 2WD buggy at the Dakar Rally, with Stéphane Henrard placing 6th outright. The Race Touareg 1 was introduced in 2004, when Bruno Saby finished 6th. In 2005, Jutta Kleinschmidt finished in 3rd overall. With the Race Touareg 2, Giniel de Villiers finished in 2nd place overall in 2006. In 2007, Mark Miller finished 4th overall. Volkswagen won the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Dakar Rally, the latter with the Race Touareg 3, with drivers De Villiers, Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah.

2011–2012

In 2011 Volkswagen competed with seven different drivers in four rallies (Rally Finland, Rallye Deutschland, Rally Catalunya and Wales Rally GB). German Christian Riedemann was the only driver competing in two rallies.

In November 2011, the team revealed they have made a multi-year contract with the French rally star Sébastien Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia.

For 2012 season, Volkswagen Motorsport continued developing their Polo R World Rally Car and they also completed a full WRC-campaign (except New Zealand) with a pair of Škoda Fabias. Sébastien Ogier drove it in every round of the campaign, while the second car was shared between Andreas Mikkelsen and Kevin Abbring. The team had a third car in their home rally Germany driven by Sepp Wiegand.

The season included some highlights, including Sébastien Ogier's unexpected special stage win in Sardinia. Ogier's fifth place in Sardinia also remains the best ever overall finish for a S2000 car in World Rally Championship.^[2] Also important to mention that Mikkelsen was the first ever S2000 driver to score Power Stage points, which he did during 2012 Rallye Deutschland by finishing 3rd on the penultimate stage.

In October, Volkswagen Motorsport announced that they have signed Jari-Matti Latvala with his co-driver Miikka Anttila to join Ogier and Ingrassia to drive Volkswagen Polo R WRC for 2013 season.^[3]

2013

Volkswagen Motorsport entered as a fully-fledged manufacturer team in 2013. Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala started the season, whilst Andreas Mikkelsen joined the championship at the fourth round in Portugal. Mikkelsen and his new co-driver Mikko Markkula were registered under a second manufacturer team, known as “Volkswagen Motorsport II” so as to give them as much time as possible testing the Polo R WRC.^[4]

The 2013 season started with Rallye Monte-Carlo. Volkswagen entered the rally with two cars, Latvala/Anttila and Ogier/Ingrassia. Ogier started their campaign with a dream start by winning the very first stage of the season, and the first of Volkswagen Polo R WRC.^[5] Ogier won one more stage and finished the rally in second place, nearly two minutes behind the winner Sébastien Loeb. Jari-Matti Latvala's rally ended in last evening of the rally when he hit the wall in slippery conditions.

The team took its first WRC victory in their second rally with the World Rally Car, when Sébastien Ogier dominated the Rally Sweden being fastest in half of the stages of the rally.^[6] Jari-Matti Latvala finished fourth, and also scored his first stage win with the team.

Ogier continued his dominance at the next event in Rally Mexico, giving the team its second victory in a row. Ogier won 16 out of 23 stages and lead the rally from the second stage till the finish. Latvala hit a rock in SS2 and after restarting in Day 2 he eventually finished outside of the points. That meant Volkswagen was still 6 points behind Citroën in Manufacturers' standings before moving on to Rally de Portugal.^[7]

2014

2015

2016

2016 would turn out to be another successful year for the team; as they collected their fourth consecutive manufacturers’ championship, and Sébastien Ogier claimed his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship.

Just days after the 2016 Wales Rally GB, Volkswagen announced that they would be pulling out of the WRC at the end of the 2016 season. This came as a surprise to many fans and journalists, as the team and their drivers had already been conducting major development and testing work on the new 2017 Polo, based on the new generation WRC cars. Although no direct reason was given for the teams’ withdrawal, it was widely speculated to be a result of Volkswagen’s recent emissions scandal.

2018

Volkswagen Motorsport made a return to the World Rally Championship with an R5 version of the Volkswagen Polo GTI. The car made its debut at the 2018 Rally Catalunya, with entries for both Petter Solberg and Eric Camilli.^[8]

2019

In November 2019, Volkswagen announced that, consistent with its shift in focus to emphasize the manufacturing of electric vehicles, it would end all motorsport programmes that do not involve electric vehicles.^[9]

Complete WRC results

WRC victories

No.	Season	Rally	Driver	Co-driver	Car
1	1987	19ème Rallye Côte d'Ivoire	Kenneth Eriksson	Peter Diekmann	Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V
2	2013	61st Rally Sweden	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
3		27º Rally México	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
4		47º Rally de Portugal	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
5		59th Acropolis Rally	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
6		10º Rally Italia Sardegna	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
7		63rd Rally Finland	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
8		22nd Rally Australia	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
9		Rallye de France – Alsace 2013	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
10		49º Rally Catalunya	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
11		69th Wales Rally GB	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
12	2014	82ème Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
13		62nd Rally Sweden	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
14		28º Rally México	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
15		48º Rally de Portugal	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
16		34° Rally Argentina	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
17		11º Rally Italia Sardegna	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
18		71st Rally Poland	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
19		64th Rally Finland	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
20		23rd Rally Australia	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
21		Rallye de France – Alsace 2014	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
22		50º Rally Catalunya	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
23		70th Wales Rally GB	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
24	2015	83ème Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
25		63rd Rally Sweden	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
26		29° Rally Guanajuato México	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
27		49° Vodafone Rally de Portugal	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
28		12° Rally d'italia Sardegna	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
29		72nd LOTOS Rally Poland	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
30		65th Rally Finland	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
31		33. ADAC Rallye Deutschland	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
32		24th Coates Hire Rally Australia	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
33		58ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
34		51º Rally Catalunya	Andreas Mikkelsen	Ola Fløene	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
35		71st Wales Rally GB	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
36	2016	84ème Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
37		64th Rally Sweden	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
38		30º Rally Guanajuato México	Jari-Matti Latvala	Miikka Anttila	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
39		73rd Rally Poland	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
40		34. ADAC Rallye Deutschland	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
41		59ème Tour de Corse – Rallye de France	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
42		52º Rally RACC Catalunya – Costa Daurada	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
43		72nd Wales Rally GB	Sébastien Ogier	Julien Ingrassia	Volkswagen Polo R WRC
44		25th Rally Australia	Andreas Mikkelsen	Anders Jæger	Volkswagen Polo R WRC

Dakar Rally results

Year	Class	No	Driver	Co-Driver	Position	Stages won
2003	Cars	215	Stéphane Henrard	Bobby Willis	6th	1
2003		203	Jutta Kleinschmidt	Fabrizia Pons	8th	0
2004		204	Jutta Kleinschmidt	Fabrizia Pons	21st	1
2004		224	Bruno Saby	Matthew Stevenson	6th	0
2005		307	Bruno Saby	Michel Périn	5th	2
		310	Jutta Kleinschmidt	Fabrizia Pons	3rd	1
		313	Juha Kankkunen	Juha Repo	DNF	0
		317	Robby Gordon	Dirk von Zitzewitz	12th	2
2006		301	Bruno Saby	Michel Périn	8th	0
		303	Jutta Kleinschmidt	Fabrizia Pons	DNF	0
		305	Giniel de Villiers	Tina Thörner	2nd	1
		307	Carlos Sainz	Andreas Schulz	11th	4
		309	Mark Miller	Dirk von Zitzewitz	5th	0
2007		301	Giniel de Villiers	Dirk von Zitzewitz	11th	4
		303	Carlos Sainz	Michel Périn	9th	5
		305	Mark Miller	Ralph Pitchford	4th	0
		308	Ari Vatanen	Fabrizia Pons	DNF	0
2008	Event cancelled – replaced by the 2008 Central Europe Rally
2009	Cars	301	Carlos Sainz	Michel Périn	DNF	6
		305	Giniel de Villiers	Dirk von Zitzewitz	1st	4
		307	Dieter Depping	Timo Gottschalk	6th	0
		308	Mark Miller	Ralph Pitchford	2nd	0
2010		300	Giniel de Villiers	Dirk von Zitzewitz	7th	0
		303	Carlos Sainz	Michel Périn	1st	2
		305	Mark Miller	Ralph Pitchford	3rd	4
		306	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Timo Gottschalk	2nd	4
2011		300	Carlos Sainz	Lucas Cruz	3rd	7
		302	Nasser Al-Attiyah	Timo Gottschalk	1st	4
		304	Mark Miller	Ralph Pitchford	6th	0
		308	Giniel de Villiers	Dirk von Zitzewitz	2nd	1

References

^ WRC. "VOLKSWAGEN IS TO WITHDRAW FROM THE FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE END OF THE CURRENT SEASON AND TURN ITS RALLYING FOCUS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POLO R5 CAR FOR CUSTOMER USE". Retrieved 2 Nov 2016.
^ "Volkswagen driver Sébastien Ogier surprises WRC rivals". vw-motorsport.de. 21 October 2012. Archived from the original on April 22, 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
^ "Volkswagen signs Jari-Matti Latvala". vw-motorsport.de. 17 October 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2013.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Volkswagen registers second team for Mikkelsen". WRC.com. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
^ "SS1: Ogier claims maiden stage win for Volkswagen". WRC.com. 16 January 2013. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
^ "WRC wrap: Ogier triumphs on snow". WRC.com. 10 February 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
^ "WRC wrap: Ogier reigns supreme". WRC.com. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
^ "Solberg joins VW line-up for debut of WRC2 Polo GTI R5 car in Spain". autosport.com. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
^ "Volkswagen to cease all non-electric motorsport programmes". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 2019-11-23.

External links

Volkswagen Motorsport official website Archived 2021-03-01 at the Wayback Machine

[1] WRC. "VOLKSWAGEN IS TO WITHDRAW FROM THE FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE END OF THE CURRENT SEASON AND TURN ITS RALLYING FOCUS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POLO R5 CAR FOR CUSTOMER USE". Retrieved 2 Nov 2016.

[Sardinia_2012-2] "Volkswagen driver Sébastien Ogier surprises WRC rivals". vw-motorsport.de. 21 October 2012. Archived from the original on April 22, 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2013.

[Latvala_signed-3] "Volkswagen signs Jari-Matti Latvala". vw-motorsport.de. 17 October 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2013.^{[permanent dead link]}

[4] "Volkswagen registers second team for Mikkelsen". WRC.com. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.

[Ogier_Monte_SS1-5] "SS1: Ogier claims maiden stage win for Volkswagen". WRC.com. 16 January 2013. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2013.

[Sweden_2013-6] "WRC wrap: Ogier triumphs on snow". WRC.com. 10 February 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013.

[7] "WRC wrap: Ogier reigns supreme". WRC.com. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.

[8] "Solberg joins VW line-up for debut of WRC2 Polo GTI R5 car in Spain". autosport.com. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 8 October 2018.

[9] "Volkswagen to cease all non-electric motorsport programmes". Motorsport.com. Retrieved 2019-11-23.

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