ES Motorsport is on the verge of confirming that rally legend Nasser Al-Attiyah will be taking on the FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2019 in a brand new Škoda Fabia WRX car.
Despite turning 50 this year, Al-Attiyah is showing no signs of slowing down as he looks to add to his two WRC2 titles, the PWRC title and two Dakar Rally wins, along with his four-time Qatari Rally Champioship titles and fourteen Middle Eastern Rally Championship (MERC) titles.
Al-Attiyah had the chance to sample the new Škoda Fabia Supercar earlier this year at the Bikernieki circuit in Latvia with the Lithuanian team ES Motorsport.
Based on the highly successful Škoda Fabia R5 rally car, the World RX incarnation has been fitted with an ORECA rallycross engine and undergone development work with ES Motorsport in partnership with Thierry Viardot from Viason Sport and Ken Skidmore from Autotek.
Al-Attiyah was joined by former Hyundai World Rally Championship works driver Kevin Abbring at the test as they pushed the new car on track.
ES Motorsport team manager Ramunas Fetingis was happy with how the test went, “It’s gone better than expected. Already from the very first laps, I can tell you that we can get to the European Championship finals, so it’s quite okay for us. We’re really happy.’
While both drivers were happy at the test, Abbring plans to remain as the test-driver for the team at the moment as Al-Attiyah looks set to make the move to World RX in 2019.
“I cannot officially announce that Nassar is coming but he is really happy with the car, with the team and we are happy with his performance so we are doing everything to make a deal for next season.”
