VW, champions in their first year?

Even though they spent nearly a year just testing this brand new car, the VW World Rally team surely can't even be a little bit surprised by the first four rallies in the 2013 WRC season.

Even though they have never run a top-level WRC team, or a top level WRC-spec car, the VW team and star driver Sebastien Ogier have racked up three WRC wins from four starts. As well as that, Ogier took second place behind the retiring nine-times World Champion Sebastian Loeb in Monte Carlo, the only rally he has so far failed to win.

Ogier's smallest winning margin has been a massive 41.8 secs over Loeb in Sweden. On the next round in Mexico he obliterated the opposition to win by 3 mins 28.9 secs, VW's decision to carry out a test in Mexico paying huge dividends. His third win in Portugal was coincidently his third win in the Polo R WRC as well. This time he won by 58.2 secs.

“Maybe it looks easy for me, but Mads [Ostberg] and Dani [Sordo] were very, very fast before the mistakes. It will be a big fight to keep this kind of result all the year. Now we have the good advantage. Now we don’t need to win the rallies, but this is not my plan: I am a competitor and I like the taste of victory. But I know I have to be clever for the rest of season.” he said.

His team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala has been less successful in the Polo R WRC, however. 2013 marked the first year since 2006 that Latvala had driven anything other than an M-Sport prepared car in the WRC, and he struggled to get used to the handling of the new car. Two crashes in testing didn't his fragile self confidence neither, but neither were his fault. A member of the public drove their car onto the closed test road in Mexico, and collided with Latvala's VW, and in Portugal a 'mechanical failure' sent him into a ditch.

A patch of ice sent him out of Monte Carlo, but he came back with fourth in Sweden, only to exit in Mexico very early after a rock shattered his front suspension. He did manage to score his first VW podium in Portugal. He put this result down to a stronger mental attitude he took on heading into Portugal, pushing himself on.

“I was pushing myself, forcing myself to drive fast and it started to help. I have been letting myself think I can take the experience and the speed will just come, but it doesn’t work that way – you have to work for it.”

“My confidence is coming in the car. In Argentina I will have a different set-up which will suit me better, but still I am really, really happy with this result.” he added.

Team leader Jost Capito even revealed that their pre-season plan of learning and gaining experience might even be reviewed, such is their recent domination. Ogier's three straight maximum scores have him heading the Driver's table by 54 points, while VW lead the Manufacturer's standings by 14 points over the formerly all-conquering Citroen team.

“In terms of pace, we are among the front-runners and appear to be able to force our rivals to make mistakes, without making any ourselves. With that in mind, we might just have to change our goals for the season,”

Could we be in for another few years of domination by a single driver in a single car? Who knows, not many could have predicted Loeb's meteoric rise to superstar status, but with Hyundai and possibly even Toyota looming in the horizon, Ogier might just have his work cut out!