The Puma WRC Rally1 is the first electrified racing car in Ford’s history. The rally car is powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged EcoBoost engine and a 100-kilowatt electric motor, which is powered by a 3.9-kilowatt-hour battery. The battery can be recharged using an external power source at dedicated service points between stages, with recharging taking just 25 minutes.

The rally car has an advanced aerodynamic dodger with a large rear antifender, as well as a livery in bright blue and purple. The bodywork features electric discharges, indicating the car’s electrified setup.

The novelty will make its debut on January 22 at the Monte Carlo stage which will open the season of WRC championship. Leading the M-Sport team drivers this season will be Craig Breen, Adrian Furmo and Gus Greensmith. Also joining them is nine-time FIA World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb.

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The company’s designers made so many changes to improve the performance of the car that they had to release a new BMW 2002 model. Later the company created a special department for rally, which helped to develop the car. The project was led by Helmut Bein, the man who first started in a BMW 1602. The first victories BMW brought drivers Rani Voll and Rauno Altonen, but the only one who achieved good results was Bein, taking first place in West Germany.

The car had a good feel for the track, thereby giving the pilots more power. Bain was always coming up with modifications for rally cars, but BMW didn’t understand his involvement in rallying and financing of the branch was stopped. It is worth mentioning several pilots who brought several victories to the BMW team, Bjorn Valdegaard and Achim Verbold.

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Rallying on asphalt tracks has a peculiarity: cars often pull rocks and rubble from the curb when cutting corners, thus creating an increasingly slippery surface for other competitors. So it’s no surprise that the drivers had a tough time at the first-ever FIA World Rally Championship in Croatia, too. Gravel was scattered in almost every corner.

ŠKODA pilots won the WRC3 category

For several specials, ŠKODA Motorsport’s private teams retained the top three places in the WRC3 class. However, on Sunday morning, the winners of the 2019 FIA European Rally Championship, Chris Ingram (Great Britain) and Ross Whittock (Great Britain) of the SXM Competition team, driving the ŠKODA FABIARally2 evo, pulled off the route, losing several minutes. But Polish and Finnish crews managed to keep their positions. Kajetan Kajetanovic and Maciej Szczepaniak of the LOTOS rally team on ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo led in the WRC3 classification. Finland’s Emal Lindholm and Mikael Korhonen, driving the same model for the Toksport WR team, finished second, just over a minute short of the top three. Ingram and Whittock from Great Britain finished fifth.

Croatian Rally results (WRC2 standings)

• Østberg/Eriksen (Østberg/Eriksen Norway/Norway), Citroen C3 Rally2, 3:01:23.7 h
• Suninen/Markkula (Suninen/Markkula Finland/Finland), Ford FiestaRally2 Mk2, +28.5s
• Bulacia/Der Ohannesian (Bulacia/Der Ohannesian Bolivia/Argentina), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, +2:02.7 min
• Brazzoli/Barone (Brazzoli/Barone Italy/Italy), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, +29:10.3 min
• Mikkelsen/Fløene (Mikkelsen/Fløene Norway/Norway), ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo, +39:42.2 min

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Meanwhile, two potential contenders for the title in WRC-2 Open were finally eliminated. Firstly, it is the Frenchman Yoan Rossel, who managed to lose the third position because of the “roof” on the final Power Stage and lost all chances for the crown (if he had arrived without incident, he could have become a vice-leader of the championship and a serious threat to Mikkelsen). Secondly, Nikolay Gryazin lost even theoretical chances for the final success – however, the “gesture of goodwill” in Finland, where the Russian crashed his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo during the shakedown, helped him more. The situation is similar in the WRC-2 Junior, where only two can win the title – Finn Emil Lindholm (he has enough to take 10 points in Catalonia or Japan to become the champion) and Briton Chris Ingram (he has one more start left, but even a victory does not guarantee his overall success). Quite an interesting picture is observed in the “veteran” category of WRC-2 Masters, which unexpectedly turned out to be surprisingly popular – still we have ten crews that have started at least three rounds. The Italian Mauro Miele still retains the leadership here, but the German Armin Kremer is pressing hard on him – he has already won his third victory, moved to the third position and is now preparing for the next round in New Zealand. You can be sure that in all three categories of WRC-2 (Open, Junior, Masters) a lot will be decided in New Zealand and Catalonia – let’s see how the course of events will be.

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Some facts

In fact, after the New Zealand absolute triumph of Rowanperry in the final two stages of the WRC-2022 (in Catalonia and Japan), only two questions remained open in the major league – will Toyota retain its leadership in the team standings and who exactly will become the second or third winners of the championship in the absolute standings? The Spanish round put an end to the team confrontation – the Toyotas won the second victory in a row and finally buried all the hopes of rivals from Hyundai Motorsport to somehow “reach” the fight to the final in Japan… It should be noted that in this rapid October counteroffensive of Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT, a decisive role was played by Sébastien Ogier, who decided to take part in the final three stages – the multiple world champion finally replaced Esapekka Lappi, won the second position in New Zealand and the victory in Catalonia, thanks to which for two stages brought to the team’s treasury 51 points! In fact, the Frenchman saved the Japanese-Finnish team, which in August-September began to rapidly “collapse” due to the failures of Kalle Rovanperi (Belgium, Greece) and Elfin Evans (during the performances in Greece, New Zealand, Catalonia, the Welshman managed to score only 8 points). What did this spectacular Toyota counteroffensive on the New Zealand and Catalan tracks performed by Rowanperry and Ogier look like in numbers?

Sébastien Augier played a crucial role

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Such successes have come relatively recently. Until 1996, all the attention of the manufacturer was focused on off-road rally-raids, where the car ZX Rally Raid was performing, and Citroen had no serious success in rallying at the highest level. However, by the mid-90s it seriously returned to classic rallying. In the early years, the team worked on the ZX hatchback, on which the master of asphalt racing, Jesus Puras, became champion of Spain. In 1998, however, it was decided to work on the Xsara. This work began in 1999, and its result was the Xsara WRC.

His full-fledged world rally debut was in 2001 at the Rally Catalunya. The start was impressive: Jesus Puras and Philippe Bugalski went first and second before dropping out for technical reasons. Bugalski was sixth in the gravel stage in Greece, but the Xsara showed its true strength on asphalt – Puras led in Sanremo and won in France. Meanwhile, young Frenchman Sébastien Loeb became champion in the Super 1600 classification at the wheel of a Citroen Saxo. He later joined the main team and finished second in Sanremo.

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