Skoda partners with Red Bull and RBR

Skoda Motorsport has announced that in the next year the team will be initiating a partnership with Red Bull. The IRC champion team will be part of a new team that will be based on the brand’s collaboration with Red Bull and its liaison with the private team BRR. The in IRC champions Juho Hänninen & Mikko Markkula of Finland and Germany's young hope Hermann Gassner jr. & Katharina Wüstenhagen will be driving the Fabia Super 2000 for Red Bull Skoda in the 2011 S-WRC championship.

“We are really pleased that we can contribute to further growth of the Fabia Super 2000 project as part of Red Bull and BRR. Red Bull is one of the strongest possible partners on today's sports scene. The BRR team led by Raimund Baumschlager, nine-times Austrian Rally Champion, and the buyer of the first Fabia Super 2000 vehicle we sold, is a guarantee of a highly professional approach and top-class background,” said the Head of Škoda Motorsport Michal Hrabánek.

Benefitting from Raimund Baumschlager’s experience in rallying, the Red Bull Rally team has been using a Fabia Super 2000 in world-class competitions over the past two years. The team had some good results which included several wins by Patrik Sandell in the 2010/11 season. The newcomer to the team Juho Hänninen aready counts with some good memories from Baumschlager's team as he drove the team’s Fabia Super 2000 in last year’s Finnish Rally, having secured the win in the S-WRC category.

Raimund Baumschager predicts a good future for the team together with Hänninen: “Juho has been one of the top drivers over the last few years, I remember him when he used to appear in PWRC - he was our toughest competitor in the battle for the championship title. At the same time, I know him as an excellent test driver and a great chap, too. I am sure that with him around we can think of the highest ranks. Hermann Gassner has a great opportunity to grow beside Juho and learn from him, in both tests and races. We are planning to appear in about seven Championships events.”