JANUARY 21, 2005

Sarrazin kicks off WRC programme

A few years ago Stephane Sarrazin was a Formula 1 hopeful. He made his debut as a Grand Prix driver in Brazil in 1999, driving a Minardi, had a big crash when his front wing failed and then hung around the edges of F1 as a test driver. When he failed to find a regular F1 drive he drifted unhappily into sports car racing but then applied for a rally driving scholarship which was being offered by Subaru and the Federation Francaise du Sport Automobile. That won him the chance win the French national rally title as his first attempt and to take part in several WRC events, in which his talent was so obvious that it was not long before he was offered a WRC drive with the Subaru World Rally Team for 2005. He will complete in at least half of the events this year and if he goes well he will probably do more. Subaru believes that it has a potential World Champion on its hands and the Formula 1 teams can only watch and see what happens to one of is rejects, who obviously has raher more talent they thought was the case.