The FIA has announced the full season entries for the FIA World Rallycross Championship 2018.
15 cars will follow the series through all 12 rounds, split over 3 continents.
The defending World Champions, Johan Kristoffersson and PSRX Volkswagen Sweden will run the same line-up, where Petter Solberg – the PS part of the team name – will once again be teammate with Kristoffersson.
GRX TANECO Team, Olsbergs MSE, Team Peugeot Total and EKS Audi Sport, who we already have mentioned, will be joined by CK Kompetition with two Renault Megane RS cars. There was talks about this car already back in 2017, but it’s only recently that team owner Guerlain Chicherit has decided that the car is ready for competition. The Frenchman will be joined by his follow countryman Jerome Grosset-Janin in the second car. The cars are developed by Prodrive and will have around 600 bhp.
If we look into the one-man teams, we have Kevin Hansen entered as a part of Team Peugeot Total, and Gregoire Demoustier at Sebastien Loeb Racing, while Janis Baumanis will be the only full season driver at STARD.
Photo: FIAWorldRallycross.com
The field of 15 permanent cars is the lowest number of cars since the series started in 2014. There are still opportunities for other drivers to enter one or more of the rounds, but it’s uncommon to be more than a few dipping their toes in the water. It could potentially be some European Championship drivers, who will enter in Portugal, Great Britain, Norway or Germany, since those weekends don’t clash with the European Championship season.
The FIA European Rallycross Championship has 23 supercars entered, so the World RX can put their faith in some “help”, since many of the drivers likes to race in Portugal, Norway and Germany. The British round will be run at Silverstone for the first time, at a just recently prepared course. That results in a goodbye to Lydden Hill, which many drivers and fans don’t like the sound of.
But let’s end this article in a positive note.
It’s going to be 15 very capable drivers running the full season this year, and it is more than what we could hope for, just a few months ago. There has been a deafening silence compared to the previous seasons, where teams were much faster announcing their programmes. Even though Johan Kristoffersson is the favourite to reclaim the title, he will be pushed both from inside the team but also from EKS Audi Sport and Team Peugeot Total teams – and who knows if somebody else might mix it up at the top.
The season starts on 14-15 April at Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.
