HOW THE GERMAN FIRM GRABBED ALL THE WRC GLORY
November 23, 2011 was the day the landscape of the World Rally Championship as Sebastien Ogier confirmed he was joining up with Volkswagen for its nascent attack on the top-flight of the discipline, which blasted into life in 2013. November 2, 2016 was the day the competition was spared as the German firm announced it was withdrawing from the main spotlight.
In snaring Sebastien Ogier from Citroen back in 2011, Volkswagen signed arguably the most promising driver in the world. Four drivers and manufacturers titles were the result before VW abruptly pulled out of the WRC in the wake of the company’s diesel emissions scandal.
VW’s tenure was short, but definitely left a lasting legacy. The Polo R WRC won 43 of the 52 rallies it started (which equates to a startling 82.7%) with Ogier grabbing 31 of them. Team-mates JariMatti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen scooped nine and three respectively.
VW has actually won 44 World rallies though as Swede Kenneth Eriksson grabbed a sensational victory on the 1987 Rallye Cote d’Ivoire in his frontwheel drive, Group A Volkswagen
Golf II GTI. Volkswagen Motorsport disbanded in late 2020 but not before the birth of the Polo GTI
R5 that got its debut in the hands of then VW World Rallycross driver Petter Solberg in 2018.
Its biggest successes have come in the hands of Petter’s son Oliver, but it also won the most recent round of the WRC2 series – Arctic Rally Finland – in Esapekka Lappi’s hands.