It’s not Marcus’s return that’s interesting me. Far from it.
He’s clearly using the opportunity to have a bit of fun. He’s said he doesn’t hold any expectations and doesn’t have any predictions of good results, but does Prodrive in the long run and what are their real motives behind this entry?
Marcus was linked to a 2009 drive with Subaru before the Japanese manufacturer pulled out of the WRC but Prodrive director Richard Taylor has said that talks with Marcus continued after December’s announcement and this week an agreement was reached for the Finn to drive in Portugal.
But why???
Unless a some top secret contract was signed Prodrive had no ties with Marcus, they don’t owe him anything so why does he have a drive? I just don’t get it.
Can Marcus turn this....
....in to this?
The history of the Impreza WRC2008 is one we all know well and one we Subaru fans would quite happily like to forget. It’s performance was poor, it struggled to finish rallies let alone keep up with the other cars. Worst of all gone were the days of the beautiful Impreza, it was god awful and looked like an old man’s car!
Why is there then now a ‘latest specification’ of it?
The car, which has already been tested in Norway, is an evolution of the 2008 model used on Wales Rally GB by Solberg and Atko and Taylor has said that although Prodrive isn’t allowed to homologate the 2009 car fully, they can put together the best specification of the car they possibly can. “It’s a one-off event this time but we’ll see if he likes it,” he added, referring to Marcus’s outing.
For me, it is that quote that is the most telling. Could it be that Prodrive are considering entering a privateer M2 team or are just using a former world champ and a famous rally as a marketing tool to drum up support for it’s customer operations?
It will definitely be interesting to see what Marcus can do with this car in comparison with Petter – if he does well, he’s the returning hero and I’ll have to realise that Petter has just lost his sparkle. But if he doesn’t, it confirms the belief that the car is just, well, crap.
If Marcus does manage to tease some raw speed out of the car could Prodrive find some short-term funding and run a team? I don’t know, I really don’t, there are far too many questions surrounding this piece of news.
There is certainly far more to this ‘outing’ than Marcus just having the retired rally driver’s ‘itch’ but yet again it’s a case of sitting back and waiting to see if anything emerges from it. Only time will tell.
