‘Game-raising’ driver strategy for Hyundai
Trio of Neuville, Sordo and Paddon for 12 rounds
Protasov waits for 2015 confirmation
Yuriy Protasov hopes to confirm his 2015 WRC programme following the opening round at Rallye Monte-Carlo (22 - 25 January).
The Ukraine driver will tackle the season-opener in a Citroen DS3 WRC run by the Italian D-Max Racing squad and plans to finalise what could be a substantial schedule soon after.
Protasov drove 12 rounds last season as he mixed a WRC 2 campaign with three outings in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC.
He finished fourth in WRC 2 after leading the standings until Rally Italia Sardegna in June, and was 11th at both ADAC Rallye Deutschland and RallyRACC - Rally de España in the World Rally Car.
Protasov will test the DS3 WRC near Gap on 17 January and hopes Rallye Monte-Carlo will be the start of a busy season.
“Our objective is to keep going forward and grow up as a crew,” he said. “We have received an interesting offer to start the season with the DS3 WRC. This project has big potential. We begin with Monte-Carlo and hope that everything will be OK.”
This will be D-Max’s first WRC event and Protasov’s programme supervisor, Luca Pregliasco, said the Italian squad was perfect for the Ukrainian’s next career step.
D-Max boss Max Beltrami is excited by his team’s WRC debut.
“I believe Protasov has great potential and his WRC 2 win at last year’s Rallye Monte-Carlo is boosting expectations. Our team is working hard to become the right alternative to existing WRC teams,” he said.
