The FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy has announced their 2019 full season entries.
The list consists of 16 drivers on 9 teams.
So that’s basically status quo on the number of drivers, but with a big change amongst the teams.
GC Kompetition will enter a total of four cars – two in the main team with team boss Guerlain Chicherit being joined by Anton Marklund in the two Renault Megane cars. The junior team will consist of Guillaume de Ridder and Cyril Raymond, who will have a Renault Clio each. Everybody except the team boss is new to the team.
GRX Taneco will bring two Hyundai i20’s again, which will be piloted by Niclas Grönholm and Timur Timerzyanov throughout the season. The will be joined by a third car on selected rounds, as we have previously written about.
Team Hansen has joined up with the Austrian MJP team, and will enter two private Peugeot 208 with Kevin and Timmy Hansen. That makes the family team reunite once again, but without the works support from Peugeot, that we have been so used to seeing.
Team STARD will bring two Ford Fiesta cars, but so far it’s only Janis Baumanis confirmed as driver.
Photo: FIAWorldRallycross.com
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport will enter a single Seat Ibiza, with Timo Scheider behind the wheel.
Krisztian Szabo will race for EKS Sport in an Audi S1, who has turned privateer, after Audi pulled the works support from the team.
Oliver Bennett returns in a private Mini Cooper – and now let’s talk about the brand new teams.
ESMotorsport-Labas Gas will enter a Skoda Fabia, that they have developed themselves. Estonian Rokas Baciuska will race for the team.
Monster Energy RX Cartel will being two Audi S1 cars, and has snatched Liam Doran and Andreas Bakkerud.
Bakkerud is a massive favourite ahead of the season, with the opposition that he will be facing. The Norwegian finished third in the World Championship in 2018, only surpassed by Johan Kristoffersson and Mattias Ekström – and they won’t enter this year. But you can’t count out Timmy and Kevin Hansen plus Grönholm, who were often competitors in the final heat in 2018.
But don’t count other drivers out, since there might be some surprises. World RX is a very special sport, where the mechanics sometimes have to work overtime, after a bit of physical contact on the circuit. And if the damage is too heavy, he might miss a qualifying race – and if you do so, you very quickly lose out on a semi final spot.
The FIA World Rallycross Championship starts in exactly one month time in Abu Dhabi, where they race on the Friday and Saturday, on a brand new Rallycross circuit, which is a part of the Formula 1 track.
