MINI WRC team officially launched

The official launch of the MINI WRC team comes less than a month before the team enters its first rally event, which is the Rally d'Italia Sardegna on May 5 to 8. The team unveiled its MINI Countryman John Cooper Works WRC cars as well as its two drivers at its headquarters in Oxford, England.

The MINI Countryman WRC car was developed together with rally specialists Prodrive, along with MINI Motorsport's parent company, BMW Motorsport. BMW supplied the 1.6-litre turbo engine which complies with the new FIA Super 2000 regulations, while Prodrive will run the team during the WRC season, as well as supply customer cars to other teams if needed.

The MINI WRC team will only participate in six events in 2011, in preparation for a full programme in 2012. The six rallies that MINI will take part in for this season are Rally Italy (May 5 - 8), Rally Finland (July 28 - 31), Rally Germany (August 18 - 21), Rally France (September 29 - October 2), Rally Spain (October 20 - 23) and Rally Great Britain (November 10 - 13).

The drivers for the new MINI WRC team are Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo, with their co-drivers to be Paul Nagle and Carlos Del Barrio respectively. The team's car will be painted in a red, black and white livery, with both AWD racers featuring a chequered flag-inspired design on the sides.

"We have an experienced team, a talented driver pairing and, most importantly of all, a strong partnership with MINI. We are now eagerly looking forward to demonstrating the performance of the car on its debut in Sardinia in just a few weeks," said David Richards, Prodrive CEO.

Source: Mini