Project Rally One will use eight drivers for its testing and development ahead of its planned World Rally Championship debut in Monte Carlo.
The new constructor project was presented to the public for the first time on Friday, a part of the Rally4Passion event in Huy, Belgium.
The car – which is yet to be named – has already completed 1000km (620 miles) of Tarmac testing, with the plan to complete 2000km more across both Tarmac and gravel in the next six weeks.
Stéphane Lefebvre is already known to have done some driving, but not all of it.
Technical leader Lionel Hansen told DirtFish: “We have tests every week, minimum three days a week. This week we tested in Belgium, next week in France for Tarmac and then the 10 days of Tarmac test will be over, and then we have five weeks to have also 10 days of gravel.
“We go to France, Mazamet, two times in the south of France and south of Spain to finish the gravel test.
Stéphane Lefebvre's last WRC start was at WRC2 level in Monte Carlo, 2024
“The drivers, we have already a few Belgian drivers, famous drivers, with Bruno Thiry for the first test, which is also [providing] a good feedback from us – he’s close to the team family.
“We have Freddy Loix, who did recently a very good performance in the Ypres Rally and so on, but also a massive performance and a massive experience about development.
“We have Lefebvre, who already tested, with a few Belgian drivers and French drivers we are close [to] from our 992 family, like Quentin Gilbert in France. A Porsche driver in France, Raphaël Astier, who is the leader at the moment in the French championship.
“That’s our driver family, but we have Teemu Suninen now on gravel, and we will announce two more as soon as we have the first gravel test ready.
“But it’s a total of eight for the test, and in that case we are not so bad, I think with the lineup.”
ERC champion Teemu Suninen has been brought in to lead development on gravel
Asked if there is strong interest from other drivers to drive the car, Hansen added: “I will answer to everybody that is trying to ring me at the moment [but] it’s Alain Parnasse who manages this.
“At the moment we are focused only on the homologation and finish the car. But yes, there is few people on the phone.”
Penasse, Project Rally One’s sporting director, admitted “we are not there yet” when it comes to driver selection.
“Of course, we looked at how is the market today, who could be a valuable choice, but we didn’t decide at all about the drivers,” he told DirtFish.
“A good mix [of youth and experience] is maybe nice, but we have to give the chance to younger drivers because it was very difficult for young drivers to step up in the current Rally1 period – and it’s maybe a mistake because we have to look to the future.
“We have some very talented drivers in WRC2, so why not start a new generation and kick off with these guys?”
