Mitsubishi confirm 2007 WRC program

Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports (MMSP) will make its return in the World Championship as an official team next year. MMSP will compete in all the European rounds of the championship, for a total of 12 events out of 16.

Toni Gardemeister and 2005 Middle East Rally Champion Khalid Al Qassimi will be the two drivers of the team. Mitsubishi will be entered in the Manufacturer Team class, which is the equivalent ? more or less ? to this season's M2 category.

MMSP will start its season at the Monte Carlo Rally, using the 2005-spec Lancer WRC. This season, Mitsubishi supported privateers in a few WRC events. Jussi Valimaki had three top ten results at the wheel of the Lancer, including a fifth place in Rally d'Italia Sardegna. Gigi Galli retired at the Monte Carlo but finished fourth in Sweden driving the Lancer WRC. Daniel Carlsson retired in Finland but scored an impressive third place at the wheel of his Mitsubishi in Sweden.

Renault ahead of schedule

Renault technical director Bob Bell is encouraged by the progress the team is making with regards to the 2007 car. He claims that the preparations have gone better so far than in previous seasons and this will be important with having to re-adjust after the loss of Fernando Alonso and with the change to Bridgestone rubber.

"Everything is running smoothly. Compared to the design of the R26, we are definitely ahead of the game at this stage," said the former Jordan designer.

"The new chassis successfully completed FIA homologation testing this week, while the rear end has already been running in a hybrid R26 chassis since last week's test in Barcelona, and has so far completed several thousand kilometres."

Renault has not been topping the timesheets at recent tests, at Barcelona last week or at Jerez this week, but Bell is not concerned by this and believes that reliability should be the main focus.

"Our objectives for these winter tests are very clear: to find our feet with the Bridgestone tyres, while also building reliability and confidence with the 2007 rear end. Everything has gone to plan, and the R26 has been quick when we have run performance programmes. The new gearbox has been operating reliably, which has been a great source of motivation for the team.

"So far, all the signs indicate that we are making very good progress - and that we will be ready to hit the ground running when the R27 runs for the first time in January," he added.