Kenneth Hansen targets a return to the World Rallycross Championship with his own two-car operation

Fourteen-time European Rallycross champion Kenneth Hansen is working on a return to the World RX as a team owner in 2019.

The Swede ran his own rallycross concern until the end of 2017, when the Team Peugeot Hansen squad, in which Peugeot had supported Hansen’s efforts since 2014, was changed into a full factory team.

Hansen continued to work for the factory outfit as team manager, but following Peugeot’s withdrawal from the series, he is aiming to reform his own team. “It didn’t take so many minutes [after discovering that Peugeot wouldn’t continue] before you start to reconsider what is possible now,” Hansen told MN. “Of course rallycross is our passion and the thing we are best at. We have even been to China to try make it work.”

The Hansen family had already been working on plans for a satellite rallycross programme with their own team before the Peugeot decision. That has now been escalated into trying for a World RX effort with wife Susann and sons Timmy and Kevin all involved.

Hansen Sr added: “We have been in the top of rallycross for many years and to only focus on a national championship or European championship is not so motivating. We target to go in the world championship. Of course with the shortage of time before next year it’s definitely not easy, but we are trying at least.”

Hansen says that if budget can be secured, the most efficient way to operate in top-level rallycross is as a two-car team. “The best way would be to run two. That’s most efficient and it’s not too big – it’s quite controllable to do it and you can do it in a quite clever way to do it cost-efficiently, but also performance-efficient.”

Like World RX colleague Sebastien Loeb, Hansen is in talks with Peugeot Sport about running ex-works 208 Supercars in the series next year.