Volkswagen Motorsport
The Volkswagen Motorsport GmbH is a 100 percent subsidiary of the automotive group Volkswagen AG , based in Hanover . The Belgian Sven Smeets has been Motorsport Director at Volkswagen since September 1, 2016.
history
Volkswagen began its involvement in motorsport in 1966 and founded its first racing series, Formula Vau . It was an entry-level series in formula racing and was driven in vehicles equipped with Beetle technology. Several later Formula 1 world champions began their motorsport careers in Formula Vau.
The Scirocco Cup was the first brand cup in 1976 . The Golf Cup and Polo Cup followed later .
Volkswagen also entered rallying in the 1970s and in 1978 Jochi Kleint competed in the European Rallycross Championship for VW Motorsport in a VW Golf 1600 . In 1980, with the Golf Rally Cup, the first one-make cup in rallying was founded, which lasted for half a decade. In 1980, Freddy Kottulinsky achieved his first victory in the Dakar Rally in a VW Iltis . Kenneth Eriksson won in 1986 in the VW Golf GTI 16V the Group A of the World Rally Championship . Since the 1990s, Volkswagen has also had a large range of vehicles for customer racing, including kit cars and vehicles from Group N and Super 1600 .
From 1979 on the circuit
From 1979 to 1994 Volkswagen was active as an engine manufacturer in Formula 3 and won 55 international titles. The winners include Michael Schumacher , Bernd Schneider , Joachim Winkelhock , Tom Kristensen and Kris Nissen . Volkswagen later organized entry-level series for motorsport beginners with the Formula König and Formula Volkswagen . In 2007 , Volkswagen returned to the Formula 3 Euro Series as an engine supplier , which Edoardo Mortara won in the 2010 season . Although the Euro Series was discontinued in 2012 , VW also participated in the European Formula 3 Championship, which was held for the first time this year as a quasi-successor series. The only champion with a Volkswagen engine was Lando Norris , who won the title for Carlin Motorsport in 2017 . However, this series also ended in 2018 . In contrast, Volkswagen is no longer involved in the new FIA Formula 3 championship , as standard Mecachrome engines are to be used there.
In 1998 the Lupo Cup started as an entry-level racing series in touring car racing . From 2004 this was replaced by the ADAC Volkswagen Polo Cup , which in turn was replaced by the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup in 2010 . The last season of the R-Cup was in 2014. The races took place as part of the DTM supporting program .
In 1997, the Volkswagen works team finished second in the VW Golf TDI in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring on the Nordschleife . In 2007 it finished eighth in the Golf GTI and achieved class victory. A year later, Volkswagen entered two new VW Scirocco GT24s and won the class again. In the overall ranking, the vehicles piloted by Hans-Joachim Stuck , among others, took 11th and 15th place.
2003 to 2011 at the Dakar Rally
Volkswagen took part in the Dakar Rally again from 2003 to 2011 under the new Motorsport Director Kris Nissen . In the first year the team was not yet competitive with the VW Tarek buggy , but later became the toughest opponent of the Mitsubishi factory team with the VW Race Touareg . At the 2009 Dakar Rally , Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz clinched the Dakar victory for the Volkswagen Race Touareg for the first time. That was the first victory of a diesel vehicle and the first victory of an African. In 2010 and 2011 this success was repeated by Carlos Sainz / Lucas Cruz and Nasser Al-Attiyah / Timo Gottschalk . The involvement in the Dakar Rally was then ended in favor of the WRC project.
From 2011 in the World Rally Championship
On May 5, 2011, Volkswagen announced full entry into the World Rally Championship for the 2013 season. The Volkswagen Polo R WRC based on the VW Polo V with a 1.6-liter turbo engine will be used. Initially, the VW team contested four rallies in the 2011 season with the Škoda Fabia S2000 in preparation . While the VW World Rally Car was being developed, the aim was to gain experience in running the World Cup and to scout young talents. Volkswagen officially presented the VW Polo R WRC at the 2011 IAA . The two-time rally world champion Carlos Sainz and the VW test driver Dieter Depping completed the first test drives in the vineyards around Trier in preparation for the entry into the WRC at the beginning of November 2011.
The Frenchman Sébastien Ogier , who was successful in the Citroën Total World Rally Team in 2010 and 2011 , was signed as the first works driver for the next three years. For the 2012 World Rally Championship it was planned to take part in all World Championship races again with the Škoda Fabia S2000 , which shared the same floor pan, gearbox, differentials and drivetrain with the VW Polo R WRC . The experience that VW gained from this was to flow directly into the further development of the Polo R WRC . The team boss at the time, Kris Nissen , did not rule out the possibility that the Polo R WRC would be used as early as 2012. VW was very accommodating to the newly modified WRC regulations by the FIA .
literature
- Torsten Hamacher: The master makers from the old airport , in Dieter Tasch , Horst-Dieter Görg (Ed.): It started in Hanover ... biscuits - bread rolls - calculating machines. About personalities, traditional companies and milestones in the history of technology , with contributions by Torsten Hamacher ..., in cooperation with the Technik-Forum Hannover eV, 1st edition, Hannover: Leuenhagen & Paris, 2011, ISBN 978-3-923976-84 -3 , pp. 36-41
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ shareholdings according to Sections 285 and 313 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) for Volkswagen AG and the Volkswagen Group as of December 31 , 2012 ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Page 12)
- ↑ Jost Capito replaces Kris Nissen (Auto-motor-und-sport.de on March 29, 2012)
- ↑ a b Nissen on the VW timetable until 2013 (Motorsport-Total.com on May 12, 2011)
- ↑ VW will start with the Polo R in the World Rally Championship from 2013 (Motorsport-Total.com on May 5, 2011)
- ↑ a b VW relies on Skoda in 2012 ( memento of the original from October 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Rallye-Magazin.de accessed on September 21, 2011)
- ↑ Ogier changes to Volkswagen ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Rallye-Magazin.de, from November 23, 2011, accessed on November 23, 2011)
- ↑ Further changes from 2012 ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Rallye-Magazin.com of September 23, 2011, accessed November 25, 2011)
