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VW to Confirm WRC Plans on May 5

Volkswagen will be ready to announce its official plans for a World Rally Championship entry on May 5, if we are to trust a recent report issued by Autosport.

With rumors about a high-spending programme prepared by the German manufacturer for the WRC surfacing in the media ever since late last year, it was initially expected that Volkswagen Group had made the official announcement last month, during Rally Portugal. However, according to the aforementioned source, it seems that only these days the project received “the final internal signature”.

Needless to say, when asked about the news, a VW spokesman insisted that he cannot comment on the topic.

As far as the car believed to head Volkswagen's efforts at their WRC return, it it believed their challenger will be based on a Polo model. The Germans' programme will be similar to MINI's, in a sense that the Polo World Rally Car will make selected appearances in the 2012 season, before doing its first full campaign a year later.

In recent weeks, rumors have made the headlines that 7-time world champion Sebastien Loeb was offered an astronomic financial deal to join the German carmaker in 2012. The Frenchman denied these allegations, and it now seems that another world champion is eyed by VW: Petter Solberg.

According to reports, Solberg, who now competes in the WRC backed by private sponsors on a Citroen DS3 WRC, has the best chances of signing a VW deal next year, alongside the marque's Dakar works driver Nasser Al-Attiyah.
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