Aussie ace with boss

Australian World Rally Championship driver Chris Atkinson will win a rally this year — and it could be this weekend in Mexico.

That's the view of Subaru rally team boss David Richards, who revealed his faith in Atkinson during his visit to the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide last weekend.

“I'd be so bold as to say the next round in Mexico could suit him well,” Richards says.

“The current car is not so far off the pace that if things favour us and everything goes as hoped, it could fall into his hands.”

Subaru's WRC team has struggled to match the pace of Citroen and Ford with its Impreza.

The disappointing performances have led to Richards taking a hands-on role with the team again after several years concentrating of Formula One.

“We've had a difficult couple of years and I've now taken back the reins of the team this year to get it on track again,” he says.

“We have a lot of work to do with the new car coming on in the middle of the year. We hope it will be the break we need."

“The car we're running today is effectively five years old in its design."

“It's had evolutions, but it is still a long way behind our competitors.”

The sedan-based Impreza WRC will be replaced with the company's new hatch this year.

Richards says a decision on when to debut the car will be taken in April after more testing.

He has promised it will be an all-new design from the team.

“It's a completely ground-up design,” he says. “To give you an idea, the gearbox in the current car was designed 18 years ago."

“We did evolutions to it but the basic gearbox casing, the fundamental design, is 18 years old."

“Obviously, in that time the suspension geometry has changed, driveshaft angles . . . there is a whole raft of issues that are not ideal. It's a credit to the engineers that they've managed to make it competitive.”

Testing of the car has gone well so far. Test driver Markko Martin has handled most of the work. Atkinson and team mate Petter Solberg have concentrated on the championship events.

“So far everything is on stream,” Richards says. “We've had no major setbacks.

“We've had some teething problems but we have no fundamental issue that we're concerned about.”