Mini to enter World Rally Championship

Mini will return to the world rally championship next season with the target of winning the title within three years, Prodrive boss David Richards said on Tuesday.

Owners BMW said in a statement that Mini, whose stylish Cooper model won the Monte Carlo Rally three times in the 1960s, would compete in selected events in 2011 before a full return from 2012.

"The target is clearly to be competitive from the outset and we have set a target with BMW and Mini of the world title within the next three years," Richards told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We (Prodrive) have got six world titles to our credit already so we've been there before and know what it takes to do it. We are setting about that task very meticulously."

British-based Prodrive ran Subaru's world championship-winning team until the Japanese manufacturer pulled out at the end of 2008 and have been working on a Mini Countryman WRC for months.

Monte Carlo is not on next year's world championship calendar, instead forming part of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, and is not certain for 2012 either.

However, Richards said that event was not fundamental to Mini's return, despite the enduring image of Northern Ireland's Paddy Hopkirk battling through snow and ice to win in 1964.

"We are focussed on the world championship and if Monte Carlo is on it, we'll be there," said Richards. "If it's not, then we are unlikely to be there.

BRITISH DRIVER

"We expect to do half the championship next year," he added, saying that the car would not be ready for FIA approval before the start of the season anyway.

With Subaru, Richards turned the late Colin McRae and Richard Burns into British world champions and would like to bring on another young Briton to follow in their footsteps.

"Obviously our priority is to get the best drivers, whatever nationality. But I have always tried if possible to have one British driver in the team," he said.

Matthew Wilson, son of Ford team boss Malcolm, is Britain's sole full-time driver at top level but has yet to become a winner in a series dominated by Citroen and six-times world champion Sebastien Loeb.

Northern Ireland's Kris Meeke, former protege of McRae's, is the reigning IRC champion and could be a prime candidate.

"There are a few candidates and maybe we will go for a younger driver, in the way we did with Colin and Richard," said Richards.

The former Benetton and BAR Formula One team boss said Prodrive was taking a new approach to the Mini project.

"We took what's now been 18 months out, where we've actually gone back to basics," he said. "We've taken all the data we've accumulated over the last 20 years, analysed everything and gone into a lot of detail in design, manufacturing and purchasing.

"It is a radical new way we have gone about this project and I am very confident it will reap its rewards as well."

- Reuters