Polish driver Michal Kosciuszko will keep the MINI name in top flight WRC competition this year, after announcing a full 13-round programme in a MINI John Cooper Works Countryman.
Kosciuszko has amassed plenty of experience in the World Rally Championship, firstly in the Junior WRC, before a move to SWRC in 2010 and then the PWRC, where he was a frontrunner in 2011 and 2012 in a Ralliart Italia-run Mitsubishi Lancer.
Although MINI’s three-year WRC involvement as a manufacturer came to an end at the end of 2012, its WRC homologated Countryman can be run by private teams on a customer basis.
For 2013 the Polish ace, 27, and his co-driver Maciek Szczepaniak, will drive for the Lotos WRC team, with the car run by MINI’s former works team partner Motorsport Italia.
Team manager Bruno di Pianto is expecting his driver to make a smooth transition from Production Car specification Mitsubishi to the MINI.
’It’s a big change but Michał has an idea what to expect,” he said. “He competed in a MINI on his home event Rally Poland in 2011 and is completing a 100km test this Friday in Italy in preparation for Monte Carlo. This change shouldn’t be too hard - and we’ll make it as easy as possible.”