Slightly disturbing news today coming out of the rally world is that Subaru is pulling out of the 2009 World Rally Championship. According to Fuji Heavy Industries, the company that owns most of the Subaru brand (Toyota owns a significant share in Subaru too, about 17%), WRC has become too expensive to partake in during these harsh trading times. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
It was Honda that pulled out of Formula One just last week. Now Subaru leaves the WRC.
The guy who runs F1 Bernie Ecclestone has said Honda’s exit from the sport is not a big deal compared to if someone like Ferrari or McLaren for instance, decided to leave.
But for Subaru to make this announcement is like a bishop who decides to leave a church. Subaru’s cars, especially the Impreza range, has been associated with the WRC for an extremely long time, in fact these cars are developed in conjunction with the team that runs Subaru’s WRC outfit.
So this is a major loss for motor racing then. I’m just crossing my fingers that no other automaker announces something similar. Well apart from Suzuki which competes in the junior WRC.
No comments:
Post a Comment