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 name	Suzuki World Rally Team
Team principal(s)	Nobuhiro Tajima^[1]
Technical director	Shusuke Inagaki [ja]^[2]
Chassis	Suzuki SX4
Tyres	Pirelli
World Rally Championship history
Debut	2007 Tour de Corse^[3]
Last event	2008 Wales Rally GB
Manufacturers' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Rally wins	0

History

JWRC (2002–2007)

 

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

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

 

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Monday, December 17, to be Toni Gardemeister and Per-Gunnar Andersson.^[10] Technical Director Michel Nandan has been replaced by Shusuke Inagaki and Akira Kawada has been appointed as team manager.^[2]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

JWRC

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

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

•  

  SX4 WRC in Paris in 2006.

•  

  SX4 WRC at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show.

•  

  Sebastian Lindholm at the 2007 Wales Rally GB.

•  

  PG Andersson at the 2008 Rallye Deutschland.

•  

  Toni Gardemeister at the 2008 Tour de Corse

•  

  Gardemeister at the 2008 Rally Japan.

References

1. Suzuki WRC Press Room: Home 2007-10-30 at the Wayback Machine
2. "WRC: Suzuki appoints new technical manager". Crash.net. 2008-01-02. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
4. . Rallysportmag.com.au. 2007-10-12. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
5. . 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.com. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
9. PaddockTalk. . 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. . Wrc.com. Archived from the original on 2008-11-12. Retrieved 2011-11-27.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Suzuki World Rally Team.

• Official website (Japanese)