WRC: VW wants Audi-like WRC dominance

Volkswagen wants to match sister company Audi's success in the Le Mans 24 Hours, and eclipse Citroen's dominance of the World Rally Championship.

Led by Sebastien Ogier, Volkswagen achieved its third-successive clean sweep of WRC titles on Rally Australia earlier this month. But team principal Jost Capito revealed three won't be enough for him or for Volkswagen Group chairman of the board of directors, Professor Martin Winterkorn.

"This team can be proud of what it achieved for the third year in the row," Capito said. "But when we won the first world championship two years ago, we had an internal Christmas dinner and we had the world championship cup on the table in front of us.

"Professor Winterkorn was sitting beside me and he saw the long line of Citroen's wins on the cup. He said to me: 'Look at this. I want a longer line for Volkswagen. It's not about winning this thing once or twice, it's about being in it and winning it consistently.' That gave me a good feeling.

"Everybody knows if you are in for three or four years, it will not be consistent in people's minds. Win for three years and, OK, it's long, but after five years people will not really remember. If you do it for 10 years and you are in there for 10 years then people will not forget."

Audi has been a mainstay in sports car racing since the late 1990s, and won Le Mans 13 times in 15 years between 2000 and '14.

"Winterkorn is in charge of Audi and look at Audi's success in Le Mans," Capito added. I don't see that it is the culture of Volkswagen to go in somewhere and come out – rather to go in there and then prove what it can do again and again and again.

"It is the same as what you do in the car business: It's not like Volkswagen wants to be the biggest car manufacturer for one year and then it doesn't care anymore."

Originally on Autosport.com