Finally a driver to cheer in the WRC
 

Not an Englishman, but Citroen have annouced Kris Meeke as part of the driver line up for the factory team in 2014.

http://www.citroen-wrc.com/en/2013/n...en-racing-2014

Great to McRae's protégé finally getting himself a factory seat: fingers crossed that Citroen don't pull the plug on him before the season starts in the same way BMW/Prodrive did!

Good news and let's hope he has a good season

Good to see :) but agree - lets hope citroen don't pull the plug....

I hope he uses his head and keeps it out of the trees for this season. The days of a McRae-style rate of attrition are, sadly, long gone!

Yeah! As it stands it looks like a pretty good line up for next year:

Volkwagen Polo R - Ogier (#1 driver)
Volkwagen Polo R - Latvala
Volkwagen Polo R - Mikkelsen (2nd VW team #1 driver)
Citroen DS3 - Meeke (#1 driver)
Citroen DS3 - Ostberg
Citroen DS3 - Al-Qassimi
Ford Fiesta - Hirvonen (#1 driver)
Ford Fiesta - Kubica?
Ford Fiesta - Evans/Al-Attiyah (shared car)
Hyundai i20 - Neuville (#1 driver)
Hyundai i20 - Sordo/Hanninen/Atkinson (shared car)

I think it will be very hard to topple Ogier in the VW, but at the very least I'd expect a good scrap behind him.

Yes pretty good line out for next year, im sure meeke will make some mistakes,but hopefully not too many in his 1st full year and can impress enough to get another full drive next year

Be nice if there was some better and longer coverage on tv as well

Yeah. Meeke has also been around for a while: lets hope his best years weren't wasted waiting for this seat!

The ITV4 highlight programmes weren't bad - and they did run a couple of short programmes during Rally GB - but more coverage is much needed!

agreed :doubleup:

M-Sport confirm the 2014 line up:

http://www.m-sport.co.uk/m-sport-new...-for-2014.html

Full drives for both Hirvonen and Evans: so that's two drivers to cheer for next year! :doubleup:

sweet more good news :yeah:

The Championship has kicked off (with Monte Carlo) today! :doubleup:

I have to say - and despite the fact I'm still certain Seb Mk.2 will take the title - this is the most excited I've been about the start of the WRC season for a number of years.

Fingers crossed for good results from Meeke and Evans.

Meeke currently lies in 2nd place, after Ogier had an off on the first corner of the first stage.

Video on wrc.com

overnight Bouffier leads, from Meeke, Kubica, Ogier and then Evans....long way to go yet and tyre choice has been the major toss up today