The Subaru WRC team has been obliged to modify its Impreza WRC2004s and needs to pass a homologation inspection on Thursday before it will be allowed to compete in this month’s New Zealand Rally.
The Subaru WRC team has been obliged to modify its Impreza WRC2004s and needs to pass a homologation inspection on Thursday before it will be allowed to compete in this month’s New Zealand Rally.
The inspection was called by the FIA because the team removed a radiator support bracket from the WRC2004. Prodrive/Subaru Director David Lapworth said on Wednesday that the component would be refitted and that its absence brought no performance benefit.
“It’s a tidying up of loose ends with the inspection, because the whole procedure is new. It’s a housekeeping job. There are pages and pages of panels that have been removed. It’s not entirely clear, but in our case, it’s not worth arguing about. It’s such a complicated rule that I’m sure it’s going to be clarified by precedent,” he said.
This year, the FIA authorised the most extensive changes to the WRC bodyshell rules since the series was introduced in 1997. Front and rear wings need no longer be made of steel and windows need not be glass, for example.
