After extensive forest testing in Finland in recent weeks, Volkswagen’s Polo R WRC looks set to make its World Rally Championship debut on the gravel of Rally d’Italia Sardegna in October.
VW has reached an agreement with the FIA to have the car run in the event, although it will not count in the final results.
Team marketing chief Stefan Moser said the original proposal was to run as the course (zero) car in Sardinia.
“We can’t run as zero car,” Moser told Autosport.com.
“But it looks like we will take a test run in Sardinia. We will not run competitively; they [the FIA] allow us to start the race, but we will not take times. We get the answer from the FIA on this subject this week.”
Just where in the running order the Polo R WRC driven by Sebastien Ogier will run is still be determined.
“I don’t know too much detail about this,” said Ogier.
“But it was disappointing not run as zero car, so this could be a good solution. OK, we can’t be in the classification, but I’m sure somehow it will be possible to finally make the comparison from our car against the others.”
Check out Ogier testing in Finland