[seooptiman]

Time to start this thread I think, even if it is only rumours and speculation at the moment.

I can imagine that Juho will be driving some kind of WRC programme in the VW Fabia next year whilst testing the Polo WRC ahead of a full works seat for 2013.

Skoda I guess will continue with Kopecky & Loix and Skoda UK with Mikkelssen.

Hopefully Peugeot Belgium will continue too and I think the big battle next year could be between Neuville and Mikkelsen with the others picking up the scraps.

We will see if Peugeot UK continue at all and whether with Wilks or not. Wilks I don't think is quite on the level of Meeke but he is better than he has been able to show this year.

Bouffier has been a little disappointing this year after Monte but maybe he will continue next year and do a little better now that he has more experience of the rallies?

It would be nice to see Gardemeister continue next year but I am sure he is going to change part of his "package" whether that is car or tyres, otherwise it will be another year of finish-line whinging from him.

Proton I do hope will continue and get their reliability sorted. They have definitely made some progress with the speed of the car this year. I hope to see Basso in one of the seats and maybe PG and Atkinson to appear again too if they don't find something else to do?

After a couple of good performances this year I hope to see Breen again next year with a bigger programme too, preferably in a Ford as we don't see enough of them.

Ok, some dreaming above but I don't think there is much that is too unrealistic?

[M_Marked]

Would Peugeot UK try and develop Breen or some other young talent? Or are they more likely to drop out of the IRC?

Juho would probably do more SWRC rounds so he can get used to those routes

[Chiquita]

I think Mikkelsen is closer to VW deal than Hänninen now. Anyway I think both Juho and Jan have contract with Škoda only for this season. I think that there has been no new one signed yet and afaik even Škoda hasn't yet decided what they will run next year (but they will continue in rallying).

[22paseabelldaps]

It would be nice to see Gardemeister continue next year but I am sure he is going to change part of his "package" whether that is car or tyres, otherwise it will be another year of finish-line whinging from him.

At the last stage end in Scotland Garde was asked about his plans for 2012 and he said that the plan is at the moment to continue in IRC. But with what, we'll see

[irrawnWab]

I wouldn't rate Bouffier on Monte Carlo. It was due to brilliant strategy (or dumb luck; your choice) and to my mind the real winner was Francios Delecouer. I wouldn't be surprised to see Skoda's some drivers (minus Kopecky and Loix) turn up in VWs for the odd WRC round. Breen was great in Scotland but what's his work on tarmac like? I haven't followed the Irish Tarmac Series for a few years.

[Chiquita]

Breen is good on tarmac. He did some WRC events in small cars and also this years IRC Barum rally (7th overall of nearly 30 S2000). It was his first start here without any testing and I was really impressed by his driving.

[Wgnhqhlg]

I would like to see Mikkelsen and Neuville in the official skoda team next year. Thats my dream team for irc 2012.

[gennickhif]

I would like to see Mikkelsen and Neuville in the official skoda team next year. Thats my dream team for irc 2012.

Neuville at Skoda?? I'd have thought Citroen would be keeping tabs on him - he needs more gravel experience. He was quick, but made mistakes. I think he has a bright future.
It will be interesting what Peugeot UK do, would feel sorry for Wilks if they dropped him - but he's had a nightmare of a year. I really hope Proton can sort out their reliability.

[ElenaEvgeevna]

Neuville at Skoda?? I'd have thought Citroen would be keeping tabs on him - he needs more gravel experience. He was quick, but made mistakes. I think he has a bright future.
It will be interesting what Peugeot UK do, would feel sorry for Wilks if they dropped him - but he's had a nightmare of a year. I really hope Proton can sort out their reliability.

I cant see Neuville with Skoda - he allegedly turned down a VW run Skoda for WRC evaluation and a chance to test a WRC Fiesta for Ford Motorsport, because he didnt want to show disloyalty to PSA Group, that to me he is firmly tied by some clause in contract to PSA, or is very confident of stepping up to a Citroen WRC seat eventually!

[Wgnhqhlg]

I really can't see mikkelsen/neuville in skoda together either. But as i wrote, Thats my dream team.. Neuville really impressed me this weekend, good pace despite his lack of experience on gravel.

[Xzmwskxn]

Loix will probably focus next year more on the BRC then on IRC don't expect a full program there..

[Qxsumehj]

Loix will probably focus next year more on the BRC then on IRC don't expect a full program there..

Sounds not very good!!!

[seooptiman]

News on Wilks: Peugeot calls on Guy Wilks to deliver more consistency if he keep his drive - IRC news - AUTOSPORT.com

[TerriLS]

News on Wilks: Peugeot calls on Guy Wilks to deliver more consistency if he keep his drive - IRC news - AUTOSPORT.com

If they give him another chance

[Andrius]

Neuville at Skoda?? I'd have thought Citroen would be keeping tabs on him - he needs more gravel experience. He was quick, but made mistakes. I think he has a bright future.
It will be interesting what Peugeot UK do, would feel sorry for Wilks if they dropped him - but he's had a nightmare of a year. I really hope Proton can sort out their reliability.

I think Proton is just waiting for a ready-to-run engine for their Satria. In the past, there were some talks for the engines that Sunred bought by a Luxembourg-based developer for the WTCC campaign. Any news about it?

Mirek, for what concern Mikkelsen and Hanninen's odds, would be a natural choice to pick Hanninen in the VW WRC team, because he's a good developer. What kind of experience has Mikkelsen about it? In fact, Hanninen developed the car with Sainz and Sebastian Lindholm... Mikkelsen in those days was destroying some Focus WRC...

[Chiquita]

Mirek, for what concern Mikkelsen and Hanninen's odds, would be a natural choice to pick Hanninen in the VW WRC team, because he's a good developer. What kind of experience has Mikkelsen about it?

That's just what I heard. Time will tell. I don't know development skills of Andreas but I see more future potential in him than in Juho just because he is much younger but similar in speed. I hate to say this because I really like Juho but this point seems to be quite obvious.

In fact, Hanninen developed the car with Sainz and Sebastian Lindholm... Mikkelsen in those days was destroying some Focus WRC...

There were much more people involved in the development such as Kopecký, Baumschlager or Starý. These three together with Lindholm were the testers since the very beginning. Now Kresta (afaik he's there as a wish of Reiger), Loix and I believe also Mikkelsen are part of development testing but by far most of testing kilometers were driven by Kopecký. These are thousands every year. I think that Sainz did only small portion like Panizzi or Vouilloz did.

[seooptiman]

Some news/rumours from today's UK Motorsport press:

- Mikkelsen looks likely to stay with Skoda UK but add some WRC rounds with a Fabia S2000 (plus recce all WRC events)

- Scotland still might not be on the calendar next year. It depends whether the Arctic rally runs in IRC. There is a quote from one IRC boss in Autosport magazine and he is quite angry with Scotland, or maybe rather the collective UK series organisers about the inflexibility of the date of Scotland. They (and everybody else) love the event but it has been difficult for the organisers to make it break even and difficult for IRC to slot it into the calendar. However if Scotland doesn't happen they have a back-up plan of Circuit of Ireland.

- IRC looks set to merge with ERC and adopt it's name from 2013. This is something I have suggested before and in my opinion would be great news for both Eurosport Events and the ERC.

[Chiquita]

IRC looks set to merge with ERC and adopt it's name from 2013. This is something I have suggested before and in my opinion would be great news for both Eurosport Events and the ERC.

Some time a go I heard the same. I completely agree with You.

[seooptiman]

One other piece of news: IRC will allow 1.6T 'RRCs' in next years championship providing the restrictor size remains the same.

[Xzmwskxn]

Not really a suprise for me. But want to know more about that restrictor size will that get be a bit bigger like 31 mm or so?