Double world rally champion Carlos Sainz believes that Volkswagen needs to recruit drivers with significant experience for its extensive test and development programme ahead of its official world championship debut in 2013.
Sainz, who captured the drivers’ crown in 1990 and 1992, is an advisor to Volkswagen Motorsport, which will spend much of 2012 honing its fleet of Polo R WRCs for competition use the following season.
But Spaniard Sainz concedes that it might be hard to find suitable candidates who would be willing to step back from the cut and thrust of competing next year to spend 12 months testing.
“It is important to get someone who has experience - the more experience the driver has the better it is for us,” Sainz told Motorsport News. “It’s not just about getting lots of testing kilometres, they need to be quality kilometres. The problem is most drivers want to race so it’s not easy to find somebody who wants to take a whole year off to do some testing.”
Volkswagen is expected to announce its drivers for 2012 before the end of the year to enable testing to begin in January. Sainz said the decision on who will be recruited to the Hannover team’s line-up would rest with the company’s motorsport chief, Kris Nissen.
“Kris is the team manager so it is his decision - I will just say what I think,” said Sainz. “We have to make sure whoever we get is the best possible option for the team. Getting two drivers with experience will be our top priority, but we will plan for taking on at least one young driver.”
Volkswagen will continue its preparations for its 2013 debut when it fields a brace of Skoda Fabia S2000s on ADAC Rallye Deutschland next week. Young stars Christian Riedemann and Hans Weijs will drive the Czech machines.