Last month, Volkswagen confirmed it was pulling out of the World Rally Championship in the wake of dieselgate. However, there’s a possibility the brand’s 2017 WRC car will still compete next year.
According to the automaker’s head of development, Frank Welsch, who recently spoke with Autocar, development of the 2017 Polo WRC continued after the firm’s exit from the sport and only concluded last week. Ultimately, it will be homologated for the championship and could be sold to private teams.
“Lots of private teams have been asking to run the car and, while there is no decision on whether we will do that yet, with development 99% complete it made sense to complete the final hoops required for homologation so we can if necessary. At the moment all I can say people are interested and we are keeping the possibility open,” Welsch said.
Although Volkswagen’s decision to leave the sport didn’t come as a complete surprise, it did seem strange it would pull out of the sport having developed its 2017 car for so many months. By selling the car to private teams, it can make that development time worthwhile and recuperate some of the costs at the same time.