Skip to main content

WRC: Anders Jæger to Team with Mikkelsen for 2016

  • Volkswagen driver Andreas Mikkelsen signs up new Norwegian co-driver
  • Anders Jæger moves up from Junior WRC to top WRC category
  • Ola Fløene leaves Volkswagen team on a career high

Wolfsburg (8 December 2015). Andreas Mikkelsen will compete in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) with a new co-driver: he will henceforth be given his instructions by the 26-year-old Norwegian Anders Jæger, who is advancing from the Junior WRC straight to the top WRC category. Jæger therefore follows in the footsteps of fellow Norwegian Ola Fløene, who is leaving the Volkswagen team at his own request with a great deal of success under his belt. Mikkelsen achieved 13 of his 14 podium finishes in the World Rally Championship with Fløene at his side – including his highly acclaimed first rally win at Rally Spain in 2015.

“Andreas Mikkelsen is one of the best rally drivers in the world, as demonstrated by his many excellent results,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Jost Capito. “He came third overall in the WRC in the last two years with Volkswagen and has put us on the podium on 14 occasions. He scored his first win at Rally Spain this year, and he has achieved his biggest successes with Ola Fløene as his co-driver. Ola proved himself to be a loyal and fair team player. We would like to thank Ola for his outstanding work and wish him the best of success in his ongoing career. At the same time, we would like to warmly welcome Anders Jæger to the team. Andreas and Anders are the same age and know each other very well, and they are in with a good chance of becoming a new dream team in the World Rally Championship.”

Introducing Anders Jæger, an up-and-coming co-driver from Norway

After a successful season in the Junior WRC, 26-year-old Anders Jæger is rising to one of the biggest challenges for a rally co-driver: the top WRC category. As of January 2016, he and Andreas Mikkelsen will compete with the three-time world champions Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (F/F) and the 2014 and 2015 championship runners-up Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (FIN/FIN), as well as with other seasoned teams driving for Hyundai and M-Sport Ford. Jæger most recently demonstrated his talent in the Junior WRC together with Ole Christian Veiby (N). He clinched five podium positions in the WRC category for up-and-coming drivers/co-drivers in 2015, two of which were on the top spot. He has previous experience as Andreas Mikkelsen’s co-driver in the Polo R WRC, having taken part in some test drives for Volkswagen in Sweden.

Ola Fløene leaves Volkswagen after some outstanding years

Andreas Mikkelsen’s long-term co-driver Ola Fløene is leaving Volkswagen and will henceforth be a strong opponent for the Wolfsburg team as he is pairing up with Mads Østberg (N, M-Sport Ford). The 46-year-old won the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) with Mikkelsen in 2011 and 2012, and achieved 13 podium finishes with him in 21 rallies in 2014 and 2015 – including their acclaimed victory at Rally Spain in 2015.

Quotes about the signing of Anders Jæger

Andreas Mikkelsen, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #9
“After a fantastic season with Volkswagen, we are rising to a new challenge in 2016. With Anders Jæger, I have an intelligent, professional and talented co-driver by my side with whom I intend to immediately continue in the same successful vein as in 2015 Anders has proved that he has what it takes, and having performed a test drive with him in Sweden I am now looking forward to our first rally together. After a number of great years with Ola Fløene by my side, I can already look back on all sorts of great moments in my career. I achieved the biggest steps in my rally career together with Ola, and I learned a great deal from him. I will certainly miss him! I’m incredibly grateful for the incredible moment that we shared by achieving our first rally win in Spain and that neither of us will ever forget. At the same time, I entirely understand his wish to make a change and I wish him all the best and, of course, many more top results in the future.”

Anders Jæger, Volkswagen Polo R WRC #9
“My eventually becoming Andreas Mikkelsen’s co-driver has been in the planning stages for a long time and I have worked very hard for this. I am now thrilled to be able to tackle the task together with him. I am proud and also honoured to have been given the opportunity to work with Volkswagen, which is such a professional team. I am confident that Andreas and I will continue to develop and will spur each other on to get better and better. Andreas is highly competitive and is hungry for more success in the future. The same goes for me too. I have already completed some test drives in the Polo R WRC with Andreas and am aware that the speed is different to what I was used to in the Junior World Rally Championship. But with the strength and support of Andreas and the team, we have an excellent starting point from which to achieve success. Now it’s time for us to prepare and work really hard.”

The post WRC: Anders Jæger to Team with Mikkelsen for 2016 appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/221FiQo
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Zerouno Cruis’n USA

ItalDesign is drumming up excitement for its new supercar based around the same 5.2-liter Audi V10 that powers the R8. Naturally, it hit the road for a cruise around California last week to celebrate Monterey Car Week. There isn’t much in the way of V10 noise—which is a real shame given the sound it makes—but you do at least get a good look at the car inside and out in this video. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber and designed to be as aerodynamic and light as possible, ItalDesign figures that it will be good for a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. “We put it our best skills into the production of the first car,” said Massimo Bovi, head of pre-series production, when the Zerouno was first unveiled in Geneva earlier this year. “Using some of the finest productions methods and engaging our high-skilled workers.” The car features clever aero tricks gleaned from single-seat racing, like a y-duct up front to improve downforce and turn-in. Available in a number of trim levels, the...
Post a Comment
Read more