Can Subaru recover with Richards back at the helm?

[smolvar]

Good to see Richards with his focus back on rally. It seems that since the F1 deal fell through he's putting some time back into his ailing rally team.

I also noticed (on All Access) that Petter has a new engineer who made comments to the effect that they know what the problems are on the current car and are working on them as best they can. This is a 180 from the "mystery issues" the team faced while filming the Discovery Turbo documentary.

The elephant in the room always seemed to be the tires. Maybe this control tire will solve some of their woes with the current car?

Petter seems upbeat, but then again he's paid to be.
Will the staff replacements matter? Will the new car be just what the Dr ordered?

Love to hear people's thoughts.

[gloomyDAY]

I'm expecting a mighty comeback. The car (N14) has been in development for well over a year, Subaru has put their full commitment into the WRC by designing a new car, and now Prodrive has to get things squared away for their charge to the front. There seems to be this common sense of alleviation once fans found out that Richards was now the new team principal.

A lot of people doubted Petter when he mentioned in an interview that the car will be ready by Greece. Petter and Subaru had their best showing last year at Greece; it was their first podium in what felt like ages. The team is strong at this rally, so I'll expect a brand new car rolling off the line by then.

[leno]

I belive SWRT with him is much better. Also the new impreza is developing now for long time and prodrive told design engineers (what they want to have- space and karaktristics to suit for rallying) to make car better so if they dont succes now there almost imposible to get back on top.

i belive n14 will be equation for winning

[N.O.T]

I don't have much faith in them anymore...i would be more than happy to prove me wrong....

[Tomi]

Same here, normally when somebody from Subaru opens their mouth out drops a load of sh!t, it's difficult to belive what they say.

[leno]

Same here, normally when somebody from Subaru opens their mouth out drops a load of sh!t, it's difficult to belive what they say.

i agree but now about n14 i have different feling

[Daniel]

Well the Monte was a positive showing for them. I hope they do improve. I do think Chris is the future for them now though.

[A.F.F.]

I do believe that now it's different. With Subaru Prodrive created their little empire. Now when there ain't F1 to replacing it anymore it'll be far too important to David Richards. You saw it with your own eyes, didn't you. He was actually there, way more active than in last years.

He said they had a three different teams working at that moment. One in Monte, obviously, one in Sweden testing and some recourses at the factory, developing the new car.

I'm confident Subaru will improve. Hell, they already did last weekend.

[Tomi]

Well the Monte was a positive showing for them. I hope they do improve. I do think Chris is the future for them now though.

Thats true, but if i remember right so was monte good for them last year too, i belive too atkinson is the guy they should focus on, he has a good attitude, drives more than cry, also he dont give up soon as he get a insect in the windscreen.

[leno]

Thats true, but if i remember right so was monte good for them last year too, i belive too atkinson is the guy they should focus on, he has a good attitude, drives more than cry, also he dont give up soon as he get a insect in the windscreen.

Looks like monte carlo suits him but he had more good rallies last year just car was a big problem

[Tomi]

Looks like monte carlo suits him but he had more good rallies last year just car was a big problem

I know i did see him drive in Finland, excellent job there too.

[Buzz Lightyear]

everybody is raving about the performance of subaru on monte this year, but atkinson done a similar job with the even older car last year, he even set quickest times, it seemed to be on hotter event it went pear shaped. mexico will be interesting.

i read on somewhere that the n14 is based on the 06 focus.... so it will be two years of of date already then?

[smolvar]

i read on somewhere that the n14 is based on the 06 focus.... so it will be two years of of date already then?

Based on the Focus? How so?
I think the focus is a great car, but there is no common thread b/t Ford and Subaru.

[koko0703]

i read on somewhere that the n14 is based on the 06 focus.... so it will be two years of of date already then?

After all the mess in McLaren and Formula 1, now is it time for Subaru-gate??? :D BTW N14 is PWRCar, isn't it??? Subaru WRCars always have "S", and so the WRC2008 would be S14 (WRC2007 was S12B, and the skip 13, right???)

[Buzz Lightyear]

Based on the Focus? How so?
I think the focus is a great car, but there is no common thread b/t Ford and Subaru.

just translating this... http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&u=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eracingworld%2eit%2frally%2fno tizia%2ephp%3fidtitolo%3d4770%26url%3dwrc%2dscoop% 2dmondiale%2din%2dstrada%2dla%2dsubaru%2dwrc%2d200 8

[Buzz Lightyear]

After all the mess in McLaren and Formula 1, now is it time for Subaru-gate??? :D BTW N14 is PWRCar, isn't it??? Subaru WRCars always have "S", and so the WRC2008 would be S14 (WRC2007 was S12B, and the skip 13, right???)

yes, i meant s14

[Larry_Japan]

DR won't be taken seriously anywhere until he chops off that embarrassing mullet.

[Fischer]

Maybe Richards is pushing Solberg and Atkinson more than his predecessor did. I remember that in rally Japan 2006 Solberg was 'suddenly' driving faster when Richards paid a visit to the team.