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Prodrive WRC Team

World Rally Championship manufacturer team

ESP Dani Sordo |Co-drivers = IRE Paul Nagle ESP Carlos del Barrio The Prodrive WRC Team, formerly known as the Mini WRC Team was the name given to the World Rally Championship (WRC) team run by Prodrive a British based motorsport corporation. Prodrive developed the car, the Mini John Cooper Works WRC, in cooperation with MINI.

Mini in rallying

Mini's history in international rallying dates back to the 1960s, when the Mini Cooper S won the Monte Carlo Rally on three occasions, in 1964, 1965 and 1967, as well as wins on the Acropolis Rally, RAC Rally and 1000 Lakes Rally, and the European Rally Championship in 1965.

Previous Mini rally cars includes the Mini 850, which was first driven to victory by Pat Moss.

Formation

Reports began emerging in mid-2009 that Mini, now owned by BMW, was planning a return to rallying. The reports went even further when Prodrive said that it would not field an entry for the 2011 Formula One season, in order to focus on a return to rallying.

On 27 July 2010, Mini ended months of speculation by confirming its rally programme in cooperation with Prodrive. The team, the factory-supported Mini WRC Team, would compete at six rounds of the 2011 World Rally Championship season, ahead of a full season from 2012 onwards. The team set a target of winning the World Rally Championship in 2013.

Team

Mini World Rally Car

Main article: Mini John Cooper Works WRC

Reports had emerged before the rally team was founded that the car was being planned. When the rally team was confirmed BMW confirmed that the car would be used on a limited schedule in the 2011 World Rally Championship. Prodrive confirmed that work on the Mini WRC started in late 2010.

Operations

The team was based at Prodrive's facilities in Banbury, previously the base of the Subaru World Rally Team. The team principal was David Richards, along with co-principal Glen Coates.

History

2011

The team signed Kris Meeke, a former IRC rally champion, as one of its rally drivers. In January 2011 the second driver was announced and Dani Sordo signed up for the season. The team competed at six rounds with both drivers, achieving two podiums in Germany and France with Sordo.

2012

Almost since the team launch in 2011, there was unease between BMW and Prodrive concerning the financing of the programme, to the extent that Mini WRC Team had to shelve plans to run two official drivers in 2012. Dani Sordo was confirmed, while Kris Meeke was replaced by Pierre Campana. At the 2012 Monte Carlo Rally Sordo managed a second place overall.

In February, after only one race, BMW terminated its contract with Prodrive. The team had to change its name in Prodrive WRC Team. A new works-team was formed as WRC Team Mini Portugal from the merger of the Mini entries of Armindo Araújo World Rally Team and Palmeirinha Rally, which were both run by the Motorsport Italia firm. Team Mini Portugal was registered as a manufacturer entry, while the new Prodrive WRC Team was demoted to a works-supported private entry. The team reduced its programme to seven rounds with Sordo, while the second car was entered in some events by different drivers.

WRC results

Year	Car	No	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
2011	SWE	MEX	POR	JOR	ITA
6	ARG	GRE	FIN
Ret	GER
3	AUS	FRA
2	ESP
4	GBR
20
SWE	MEX	POR	JOR	ITA
Ret	ARG	GRE	FIN
Ret	GER
Ret	AUS	FRA
Ret	ESP
5	GBR
4
2012	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	GER	GBR	FRA	ITA	ESP
5
MON
2	SWE
Ret	MEX	POR
11	ARG	GRE	NZL
6	FIN	GER
9	GBR	FRA
Ret	ITA	ESP
9
MON
7
	SWE
8	MEX	POR
Ret	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	GER	GBR	FRA	ITA	ESP
2013	MON	SWE
25	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	ITA	FIN
Ret	GER	AUS	FRA	ESP	GBR

Mini entered in 2011 season as development entry, therefore they could not score points as a team.

References

Cary, Tom. (30 September 2010). "IRC champion Kris Meeke set to drive Mini WRC in World Rally Championship". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
(5 January 2011). "MINI has ended weeks of speculation by confirming that Dani Sordo will drive for its new WRC Team in the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship.". WRC.com.
(27 July 2010). "Mini to compete in the World Rally Championship". [[The Guardian]].
(27 July 2010). "Welcome back to MINI!". [[International Sportsworld Communicators]].
(27 July 2010). "The Oxford-built Mini makes World Rally come back". [[BBC]].
(15 April 2010). "Prodrive not submitting 2011 F1 entry". GPUpdate.
(27 July 2010). "Mini aim to win world title within three years". [[TF1 Group]].
"Meeke signs for Mini WRC programme". Autosport.
"Meeke: Mini drive a dream come true". Autosport.
Evans, David. (2 February 2012). "BMW set to terminate Prodrive contract to run the Mini WRC team". [[Haymarket Group.
Evans, David. (6 February 2012). "Prodrive loses status as MINI's factory World Rally Team". [[Haymarket Group.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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