FIA’s VW Decision a “Punch in the Face,” Says Mikkelsen

Last year’s World Rally Championship runner up and former VW driver, Andreas Mikkelsen is having a pretty rotten 2017. The young Norwegian has had two VW seats fall out from beneath him, and now he hasn’t got a ride for 2017.

“Basically everything that could have gone wrong went wrong and the latest decision [to bar the 2017 VW] was another punch in the face,” Mikkelsen told motorsport.com. “I don’t know what more I could have done to get a drive this year.”

Mikkelsen was ready to race VW’s nearly completed 2017 WRC Polo, when the FIA blocked homologation of the car, meaning that it couldn’t race this year.

As a result of his commitment to VW, Mikkelsen didn’t sign with another team, unlike his former teammates, Sebastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala, who are racing with M-Sport and Toyota respectively.

Mikkelsen could compete in an older car, he says, but there’s little in doing that as it would be jolly expensive and as last season’s runner up, he doesn’t feel he has anything to prove.

So the young Norwegian says he’ll watch from the sidelines this season, biding his time until he can come back in 2018.

“I have chance to look at what everybody has got and we can make a picture about where is the best place to be in 2018 when I want to come back and fight for the world championship,” says Mikkelsen.

[source: motorsport.com]

The post FIA’s VW Decision a “Punch in the Face,” Says Mikkelsen appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2lYmELT
via IFTTT

Comments

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, ...

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 ...

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...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog