Richard Burns and Robert Reid will return to Subaru, the team for which they won the 2001 drivers’ championship, next year. In other news, Simon Jean-Joseph has been as appointed Citroën’s third driver for the 2004 season.
Richard Burns and Robert Reid will return to Subaru, the team for which they won the 2001 drivers’ championship, next year. In other news, Simon Jean-Joseph has been as appointed Citroën’s third driver for the 2004 season.
Burns will return to the Subaru WRC team for the second time next season, having signed a two-year deal to drive for the squad in place of Tommi Makinen whom, as CARtoday.com reported on Tuesday, has decided to retire.
The Briton has driven for Peugeot for the past two seasons and currently leads the championship, but has so far failed to win a rally in his time with the French squad.
Burns and Reid started their works driving careers with Subaru in 1993, when the Briton became the youngest winner of the British Championship. They stayed with the team for the 1994 and 1995 seasons, competing on selected rounds of the WRC and coming second in the Asia-Pacific Championship.
The pair left to drive for Mitsubishi between 1996 and 1998, but returned to Subaru in 1999 for three successful years, during which time Richard collected eight of his 10 WRC victories.
“Subaru is the team I’ve had the most success with,” said Burns, “and I’m looking forward to being part of it again. For the time being though I’m putting thoughts of next year to the back of my mind. My focus is the current season, there’s still a long way to go, and I’ll continue to push 100 percent for the 2003 title.”
Burns will line up alongside Petter Solberg at Subaru, a combination that team principal David Lapworth believes is the strongest in the championship: “Richard and Petter are two of the most exciting drivers out there, and with both of them driving for Subaru I believe our line-up for 2004 is second to none.”
Meanwhile, Simon Jean-Joseph is to be Citroen’s third driver in the 2004 World Rally Championship. The 34-year-old Martinique driver, who is currently driving for Renault with a Super 1600 Clio in World Championship and French series events, looks to be the first of the less-obvious candidates for WRC seats to have secured a drive courtesy of the new rules which say that third drivers may not have appeared on the podium in the last three seasons.
Jean-Joseph made a number of factory WRC appearances for Ford in 1999 and then for Subaru in 2000, his best results were seventh in Sanremo for Ford in 1999 and two sevenths – San Remo and Corsica – for Subaru a year later.