The Prodrive WRC Team, formerly known as the Mini WRC Team was the name given to the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

(WRC) team run by

Prodrive Prodrive is a British motorsport and advanced engineering group based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England. It designs, constructs and races automobile, cars for companies and teams such as Aston Martin, Bahrain Raid Xtreme and Team X44. Its advan ...

. Prodrive developed the car, the

Mini John Cooper Works WRC The Mini John Cooper Works WRC is a World Rally Car debuted by the Mini WRC Team during the 2011 World Rally Championship season. It is the first rally car to bear the Mini label in top-level rallying since the 1960s. The car was entered in a lim ...

, in cooperation with

MINI The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

Mini in rallying

Timo Mäkinen - 1965 Rally Finland (cropped)

Mini's history in international rallying dates back to the 1960s, when the

Mini Cooper S The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

won the legendary

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast ...

on three occasions, in 1964, 1965 and 1967, as well as wins on the

Acropolis Rally The Acropolis Rally of Greece ( el, Ράλλυ Ακρόπολις) is a rally competition that is part of the World Rally Championship (WRC). The rally is held on very dusty, rough, rocky and fast mountain roads in mainland Greece, usually duri ...

RAC Rally Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...

and

1000 Lakes Rally Rally Finland (formerly known as the Neste Rally Finland, Neste Oil Rally Finland, 1000 Lakes Rally and Rally of the Thousand Lakes; fi, Suomen ralli, sv, Finska rallyt) is a rally competition in the Finnish Lakeland in Central Finland. The ra ...

, and the

European Rally Championship The European Rally Championship (officially FIA European Rally Championship) is an rallying, automobile rally competition held annually on the European continent and organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The champions ...

in 1965. Previous Mini rally cars includes the Mini 850, which was first driven to victory by Pat Moss.

Formation

Reports began emerging in mid-2009 that Mini, now owned by BMW, was planning a return to rallying. The reports went even further when Prodrive said that it would not field an entry for the 2011 Formula One season, in order to focus on a return to rallying. On 27 July 2010, Mini ended months of speculation by confirming its rally programme in cooperation with Prodrive. The team, the factory-supported Mini WRC Team, would compete at six rounds of the 2011 World Rally Championship season, ahead of a full season from 2012 onwards. The team set a target of winning the World Rally Championship in 2013.

Team

Mini World Rally Car

Reports had emerged before the rally team was founded that the car was being planned. When the rally team was confirmed BMW confirmed that the car would be used on a limited schedule in the 2011 World Rally Championship. Prodrive confirmed that work on the Mini WRC started in late 2010.

Operations

The team was based at

's facilities in

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

, previously the base of the

Subaru World Rally Team The Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) was Subaru's World Rally Championship (WRC) team. It used a distinctive blue with yellow colour scheme that is a throwback to the sponsorship deal with State Express 555, a BAT cigarette brand popular in Asia. ...

. The team principal was David Richards, along with co-principal Glen Coates.

History

2011

The team signed

Kris Meeke Kris Meeke (born 2 July 1979) is a Northern Irish professional rally driver, best known for competing in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC). He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion. His co-driver is Seb Marshall, also B ...

, a former IRC rally champion, as one of its rally drivers. In January 2011 the second driver was announced and

Dani Sordo Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland. Career Sordo began in motocross wh ...

signed up for the season. The team competed at six rounds with both drivers, achieving two podiums in Germany and France with Sordo.

2012

Almost since the team launch in 2011, there was unease between BMW and Prodrive concerning the financing of the programme, to the extent that Mini WRC Team had to shelve plans to run two official drivers in 2012. Dani Sordo was confirmed, while Kris Meeke was replaced by

Pierre Campana Pierre Campana (born 1 May 1985 in Bastia) is a French rally driver from Corsica. Career Campana began rallying in 2004, and made his World Rally Championship debut in 2007 on his home event, the Tour de Corse. Driving a Citroën C2 R2, he reti ...

. At the 2012 Monte Carlo Rally Sordo managed a second place overall. In February, after only one race, BMW terminated its contract with Prodrive. The team had to change its name in Prodrive WRC Team. A new works-team was formed as

WRC Team Mini Portugal The WRC Team Mini Portugal was Mini's factory-supported World Rally Championship team. Established in February 2012 after the Prodrive-run Mini WRC Team had its support from parent company BMW reduced, the team debuted at the Rally of Sweden. ...

from the merger of the Mini entries of Armindo Araújo World Rally Team and Palmeirinha Rally, which were both run by the

Motorsport Italia Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

firm. Team Mini Portugal was registered as a manufacturer entry, while the new Prodrive WRC Team was demoted to a works-supported private entry. The team reduced its programme to seven rounds with Sordo, while the second car was entered in some events by different drivers.

WRC results

*Mini entered in 2011 season as development entry, therefore they could not score points as a team.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mini Wrc Team World Rally Championship teams Mini (marque)