From MaxRally.com

Skoda’s R5 future is getting closer with the firm’s motorsport manager, Pavel Hortek, revealing that the category represents “one of the best options for the future”.

The Czech firm tested a Fabia S2000 with a turbocharged engine in early June but there had been little official comment from Skoda until Hortek was interviewed on the Inside ERC programme, which aired on Eurosport following last month’s European championship Sibiu Rally.

“The R5 category is definitely one of the best options for the future and we have to pay attention to it,” Hortek said. “And we are with great interest following our competitors from the teams of [M-Sport] and Peugeot. At the moment I can only tell you that we are following ERC and APRC with Jan Kopecký and Esapekka Lappi.”

If Skoda does commit to an R5 future then it’s unlikely that a Fabia conforming to the new-generation regulations will appear in competition until 2015 by when the

new road-going Fabia will have gone on sale. 

When Skoda launched its Fabia Super 2000 in 2009 it followed a three-season absence from competition by the make’s factory team.