Richards: I will be more involved at Subaru in 07.

by Rob Wilkins

Prodrive boss, David Richards has confirmed that he will be more hands-on at the Subaru World Rally Team next year.

Subaru's WRC team is of course run by Prodrive, however this season, the Banbury-based squad haven't had the best of results and his return, may well in part, be a response to this.

It is still though a somewhat surprising decision, as he will also be extremely busy, to say the least, organising Prodrive's preparations to enter the FIA Formula One World Championship in 2008, when they will take on the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Renault. Speaking exclusively to Crash.net Radio at the Rallyday in the UK on Saturday, when asked if he might step-back from the WRC, in light of Prodrive's success in gaining the twelfth and final slot in F1 he said that would not be the case.

"Oh [I plan to stay involved in WRC] - very much so, but less so on the media rights side of it and more so back with the team again at Subaru. I would like to get more involved with that next year," he noted. "The TV rights, the media side stuff is mature now and we have got a great solid team of people in there, so it is time for me to stand back from that."

As for if the Subaru WRT can improve in the second half of the season, Richards is quietly confident the team's results will be better.

"They have done a lot of testing and development work, Pirelli have been working hard on the tyres for the latter part of the year, so if everything comes together, I am sure they will be very good," he added. "As I say, I will be spending more time with the team towards the end of the season and certainly for next year."

Sebastien Loeb has once again been dominant this season. However while Richards believes he is odds onto take the title for a third year in a row, he doesn't think the Frenchman will have it all his own way.

"Loeb looks in a very assertive position. [However] Marcus [Gronholm] is clearly very good in the Ford and of course Petter, towards the latter part of the year, I am sure he can notch up a few wins as well," concluded Richards.