Suzuki World Rally Team

The Suzuki World Rally Team, also known as the Suzuki WRC Challenge, was Suzuki's factory backed World Rally Championship team, as part of the Suzuki Sport organization. The team debuted for the first time at the 2007 Tour de Corse in France.[4] After just one full season in 2008, in which the team finished fifth in the manufacturers' championship, Suzuki announced that they would be pulling out of the WRC.[5] The decision was attributed to falling car sales caused by the economic crisis, although reports had surfaced that Suzuki were ready to abandon its WRC program before the economic downturn began.[6]

Suzuki Sport
Full nameSuzuki World Rally Team
Team principal(s)Nobuhiro Tajima[1]
Technical directorShusuke Inagaki [ja][2]
ChassisSuzuki SX4
TyresPirelli
World Rally Championship history
Debut2007 Tour de Corse[3]
Last event2008 Wales Rally GB
Manufacturers' Championships0
Drivers' Championships0
Rally wins0

History edit

JWRC (2002–2007) edit

 
Suzuki Swift Super 1600

In 2002 Suzuki began competing in the FIA Junior World Rally Championship with a Super 1600 version of the Ignis. The following year it won two events with Daniel Carlsson and in 2004 it won the FIA Junior World Rally Championship title with Per-Gunnar Andersson. To gain experience of all the rallies in the series, Suzuki contested all 16-rounds of the WRC in 2005 and introduced a new model, the Swift S1600 in Finland. British driver Guy Wilks finished runner-up in that year's championship. In 2007 the team had its best ever year in the J-WRC. Andersson won the title for the second time, while Urmo Aava finished second in the standings in an identical Swift S1600.

2007 edit

Testing of the Suzuki SX4 WRC car was conducted in Japan in February 2007, before relocating to Europe in March.[7] Gravel testing was undertaken in Southern France in April.[8]

The Suzuki SX4 WRC made a competitive debut in Corsica, at the 2007 Tour de Corse, driven by Nicolas Bernardi and co-driver Jean-Marc Fortin, and set several stage times just outside the top ten.[3][9] The team also participated in 2007 Rally GB with driver Sebastian Lindholm and co-driver Tomi Tuominen.[4]

2008 edit

 
Toni Gardemeister at the 2008 Tour de Corse.

Drivers for the 2008 season were announced Monday, December 17, to be Toni Gardemeister and Per-Gunnar Andersson.[10] Technical Director Michel Nandan has been replaced by Shusuke Inagaki and Akira Kawada has been appointed as team manager.[2]

Suzuki scored on their proper debut with Andersson finishing eighth in the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally, with Suzuki getting two points in the manufacturers' title race. In the 2008 Swedish Rally, Gardemeister finished seventh, earning Suzuki three more manufacturers' points.[11] Both of these early races were marred by engine problems due to faulty head gaskets, with Gardemeister retiring from the Monte Carlo Rally and Andersson retiring from the Swedish Rally, before both cars retired from the Rally of Mexico.[12]

After struggling with reliability issues for several rallies, Suzuki achieved their best result in New Zealand, with Andersson finishing sixth and Gardemeister seventh. At their home event, the 2008 Rally Japan, the team did even better and took fifth and sixth places. During a super special stage in the Sapporo Dome, Gardemeister also gave Suzuki and the SX4 WRC their first stage win. Andersson challenged for a podium in the early stages of Rally GB before going on to finish fifth, while Gardemeister finished seventh ahead of the works Ford of Mikko Hirvonen.

WRC Results edit

JWRC edit

Year Entrant Car No Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 JWRC Points
2002 Suzuki Sport Suzuki Ignis S1600 59   Juha Kangas MON
9
ESP
11
GRE
Ret
GER
Ret
ITA
14
GBR
Ret
0
68   Niki Schelle MON
6
ESP
8
GRE
Ret
GER
3
ITA
7
GBR
Ret
8th 5
75   Kazuhiko Niwa MON
Ret
ESP
Ret
GRE
Ret
GER
9
ITA GBR
Ret
0
2003 Suzuki Sport Suzuki Ignis S1600 52   Daniel Carlsson MON
EX
TUR
Ret
GRE
2
FIN
1
ITA
Ret
ESP
4
GBR
1
3rd 33
64   Ville-Pertti Teuronen MON
Ret
TUR
4
GRE
Ret
FIN
Ret
ITA
4
ESP
6
GBR
3
6th 19
69   Salvador Cañellas MON
Ret
TUR
2
GRE
4
FIN
5
ITA
2
ESP
3
GBR
4
2nd 36
71   Urmo Aava MON
4
TUR
Ret
GRE
3
FIN
4
ITA
Ret
ESP
5
GBR
Ret
4th 20
2004 Suzuki Sport Suzuki Ignis S1600 31   Mirco Baldacci MON
6
GRE
Ret
TUR
6
FIN
4
GBR
Ret
ITA
3
ESP
3
5th 23
32   Urmo Aava MON
2
GRE
Ret
TUR
5
FIN
5
GBR
Ret
ITA
Ret
ESP
Ret
8th 16
33   Guy Wilks MON
Ret
GRE
1
TUR
3
FIN
Ret
GBR
1
ITA
2
ESP
Ret
3rd 34
35   Kosti Katajamäki MON
Ret
GRE
Ret
TUR
2
FIN
2
GBR
3
ITA
4
ESP
5
4th 31
43   Jari-Matti Latvala MON GRE TUR FIN
Ret
GBR
4
ITA
Ret
ESP
9
13th 5
45   Per-Gunnar Andersson MON
8
GRE
Ret
TUR
1
FIN
1
GBR
Ret
ITA
1
ESP
2
1st 39
2005 Suzuki Sport Europe Suzuki Ignis S1600 31   Per-Gunnar Andersson MON
6
MEX
2
ITA
5
GRE
1
6th 30
Suzuki Swift S1600 FIN
Ret
GER
4
FRA ESP
Ret
Suzuki Ignis S1600 32   Guy Wilks MON
7
MEX
1
ITA
6
GRE
2
2nd 35
Suzuki Swift S1600 FIN
3
GER
3
FRA ESP
Ret
Suzuki Ignis S1600 33   Kosti Katajamäki MON
2
MEX ITA
Ret
GRE
4
FIN
Ret
GER
5
FRA
3
ESP
2
5th 31
36   Urmo Aava MON
Ret
MEX ITA
2
GRE
3
FIN
2
GER
Ret
FRA
4
ESP
4
4th 32
2006 Suzuki Sport Europe Suzuki Swift S1600 33   Urmo Aava SWE
3
ESP FRA
2
ARG ITA
3
GER FIN
DSQ
TUR
1
GBR
9
2nd 31
35   Per-Gunnar Andersson SWE
1
ESP FRA ARG
3
ITA
4
GER FIN
2
TUR
DSQ
GBR
Ret
3rd 29
37   Pavel Valoušek SWE
4
ESP FRA
Ret
ARG ITA
14
GER
3
FIN
12
TUR
13
GBR 15th 11
43   Jaan Mölder SWE ESP FRA ARG ITA GER FIN TUR GBR
1
9th 18
48   Guy Wilks SWE
9
ESP FRA ARG
1
ITA
8
GER FIN
1
TUR
4
GBR
11
4th 26
2007 Suzuki Sport Europe Suzuki Swift S1600 33   Urmo Aava NOR
3
POR
2
ITA
1
FIN GER
2
ESP
3
FRA
Ret
2nd 38
36   Jaan Mölder NOR
4
POR
4
ITA
5
FIN
13
GER
6
ESP
6
FRA 5th 20
42   Aigar Pärs NOR
12
POR
14
ITA
Ret
FIN
Ret
GER
8
ESP FRA
Ret
21st 1
43   Vilius Rožukas NOR
11
POR
8
ITA
9
FIN
6
GER ESP FRA 12th 4
45   Per-Gunnar Andersson NOR
1
POR
1
ITA
2
FIN GER ESP
1
FRA
4
1st 43
  James Wozencroft NOR POR ITA FIN GER
13
ESP FRA 0
2008 Suzuki Sport Europe Suzuki Swift S1600 32   Jaan Mölder MEX
2
JOR
Ret
ITA
9
FIN
Ret
GER ESP
6
FRA
11
8th 11
35   Michał Kościuszko MEX
3
JOR
Ret
ITA
1
FIN
3
GER ESP
9
FRA
Ret
5th 22
43   Florian Niegel MEX JOR
4
ITA
Ret
FIN GER
8
ESP
10
FRA
7
11th 8
60   Pierre Marche MEX JOR ITA FIN GER ESP FRA
4
15th 5
2009 Suzuki Sport Europe Suzuki Swift S1600 31   Aaron Burkart IRE
1
CYP
3
POR ARG
2
ITA
3
POL FIN
4
ESP
5
3rd 39
32   Michał Kościuszko IRE CYP
2
POR
1
ARG
1
ITA
2
POL
Ret
FIN
3
ESP 2nd 42
33   Simone Bertolotti IRE
3
CYP POR
6
ARG ITA
7
POL
5
FIN
6
ESP
2
6th 26
2010 Suzuki Sport Europe Suzuki Swift S1600 21   Aaron Burkart TUR
1
POR
3
BUL GER
2
FRA
5
ESP
4
1st 80
World Rally Team Estonia 30   Karl Kruuda TUR
6
POR
2
BUL
5
GER
3
FRA ESP 4th 51

WRC edit

Year Car No Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 WDC Points TC Points
2007 Suzuki SX4 WRC 19   Nicolas Bernardi MON SWE NOR MEX POR ARG ITA GRE FIN GER NZL ESP FRA
31
JPN IRE 0 0
  Sebastian Lindholm GBR
27
0
2008 Suzuki SX4 WRC 11   Toni Gardemeister MON
Ret
SWE
7
MEX
Ret
ARG
Ret
JOR
Ret
ITA
Ret
GRE
9
TUR
Ret
FIN
8
GER
10
NZL
7
ESP
13
FRA
13
JPN
6
GBR
7
13th 10 5th 34
12   Per-Gunnar Andersson MON
8
SWE
Ret
MEX
Ret
ARG
24
JOR
Ret
ITA
9
GRE
11
TUR
Ret
FIN
Ret
GER
15
NZL
6
ESP
32
FRA
17
JPN
5
GBR
5
12th 12

Gallery edit

References edit

  1. ^ Suzuki WRC Press Room: Home Archived 2007-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ a b "WRC: Suzuki appoints new technical manager". Crash.net. 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  3. ^ a b Bonjour Suzuki! | World Rally | News | WRC | WRC Latest News
  4. ^ a b "RallySport Magazine – Suzuki WRC – the dream has begun". Rallysportmag.com.au. 2007-10-12. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  5. ^ "Suzuki suspends its WRC programme". wrc.com. 2008-12-15. Archived from the original on 2008-12-16. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  6. ^ David Evans (2008-05-02). "Suzuki's WRC future in question". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  7. ^ New Suzuki SX4 WRC to begin European Test Programme[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ "SUZUKI WRC CHALLENGE | Reports | Test Report #01 SX4 WRC moves on to European tests". Suzuki-wrc.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  9. ^ PaddockTalk. "Corsica Rally: Suzuki WRC Leg 1 Recap – SX4 Debuts". PaddockTalk. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  10. ^ WRC: Official: Suzuki names drivers for '08.
  11. ^ World Rally Championship – News – Gardemeister takes Suzuki's best WRC result to date[dead link]
  12. ^ "World Rally Championship – News – P-G Andersson out of Rally Sweden – UPDATED". Wrc.com. Archived from the original on 2008-11-12. Retrieved 2011-11-27.

External links edit