Having a few offs in his recent performances, it's clear Meeke's not at 100%...thoughts? Confidence? Car? Both? None of the above?
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Having a few offs in his recent performances, it's clear Meeke's not at 100%...thoughts? Confidence? Car? Both? None of the above?
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I think he is overpushing.The C3 isn't there, so he is trying to compensate that by taking risks.And we know that there are so many risks you can get away.Probably it goes back to Colin's passing.If McRae was still here, Meeke would have someone to advice and calm him down when needed.Without his mentor, Kris is driving by instinct.He needs to relax and drive into his safe rythm.Go safely and bring the car home, no matter the place.
Same old, same old. He's either a pace setter or a car wrecker, the latter more often, has been like that his Citroën career and it will continue to be.
Unacceptable, really. I love the guy, and he's undoubtedly quick, but he's crashed in every rally of the year sans Corsica. He has no reason to push so hard anymore. The championship is lost.
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Probably lot can be dig from his word in Sweden - "I can't drive this ****". It can be also his problem not to bring the car he wants. Though it seemed quite good last year's tests?!? I don't really know, we can only guess.
It's just him. He has been like that since... forever.
- starting bad doesn't certainly help
- the car had setup issues in Sweden
- Matton doesn't help either, when he actually encourages him to just go for rally wins.
But yeah he crashed 6 times in 6 rallies. (In mexico it didn't cost anything in the end, but could have been huge crash. Twice in Argentina, so only Corsica without crash). The body language in Portugal was terrible since before stage 1, after the crash he was downright pissed all the time. Sure if it was 2-3 stages, but this was basically whole 2 days, not very professional.
I really don't get how can Citroen bosses (above Matton) put up with this. Their main driver crashes all the time and is pissed. Their french driver has now been slowest WRC in basically every single stage.. and also crashed in every single rally with C3.
Some change in that team is needed. If not driver change then certainly attitude/strategy/preparation.
EDIT: And no C3 seems just fine. Maybe not as fast as Hyundai but at least on level with Toyota. Only by looking at Breen's times.
Just what I wanted to say, I mean, Meeke & Lefebvre clearly have a problem with the car, if you look at Breen back on Friday he was quite happy with the car, he even set some fast times, they really need to get their head straight & their cars sorted or they will find themselves without anything to drive come the end of 2018.
I think the Sweden setup problem was a fluke, it's the usual problem that if he's not first he pushes too much and takes too much risks and goes off. If it is indeed the car it's kind of sad since he developed it.
Linda Jackson
Pleased with the performance @rallydeportugal, guys! Keep working hard, I know I can count on you to do even better in Sardinia #WRC
Question to you guys: If Meeke's current contract would have been a 2+1, would you exercise the extra year for 2018?
I'm not sure I would. He wins a rally now and then, but the results inbetween aren't good enough for the manufacturers title. Maybe it's Meeke that Mikkelsen should replace, instead of Lefebvre (with another youngster replacing him).
I would certainly not have Meeke as 1st driver. As a "second" out of 3 competitive drivers he would have less pressure and maybe even get more consistent.... or want to beat the first driver at all costs and crash even more, then again crashing even more is not really possible atm.
To be fair to Lefebvre most of last year he was pretty much exactly as fast as Breen. This year nothing works for him. He could clearly use some break/re-set, for example in R5. Problem is that PSA doesn't have an R5 that is allround competetive vs Fabia/Fiesta.
Excellent breakdown...and I do have to agree with the concerns in attitude. I think it's bleeding into all the other issues. He'll never get his confidence back as long as he's jaded. And without confidence all his other decisions (i.e. unnecessarily pushing too hard) will be compromised. The car itself is a whole other issue, imo.
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recent performances ?? whats different from his previous ones ??
lol
Are you f***king serious? C3 has a major inherint problem... its designed by touring car engineers. Breen is happy with 5th's... If Meeke was finishing 5th in every rally everyone would be disappionted.
#1 Monte - Car setup too low - team admits they didnt test in conditions like the rally, car too low, car running on sump guard every cut.
#2 Sweden - transmission errors on all cars
#3 Mexico - Win
#4 Corsica - The C3 'touring car' was leading.. and broke
#5 Agentina - The touring car dampers put him off the road
#6 Portugal - Mistake by Meeke. Day 1 Meeke leading the small mistake, both Citroen with seconds of lead. Day 2 surface change.. both cars lose over 1m30 to Ogier.
The best thing to happen is Mikkelson in the car... now we will begin to see where the car really is. Mikkelson and Meeke in Finland will be a good gauge.. hopefully by then Mikkelson will have 2/3 event in the car.
Say what you like about the car but Meeke himself is more the issue for me. Since he got a WRC chance he's been the classic 'win it or bin it' driver and I cant see him changing now.
Consistency and speed need to go together and his accidents just destroy his confidence and then he tries too hard or goes too slow and loses concentration.
He won't be happy with himself and he's underperformed, nobody can deny that. However the championship was lost after Corsica, and after that car error they've purely been targeting wins. That's the instruction from the team and all Meeke wants to do himself.
The first two events were right offs from the team due to set up and testing mistakes, but he then won in Mexico.
In Corsica that C3 looked at home on the tarmac (surprise surprise), and he was in control out in front and beating Ogier and Neuville on pure pace on tarmac. When has that ever happened to Seb?
In Argentina he was closest to evans and running in second before both C3s had massive issues with the same compression. That also has to be classed as a mistake by Meeke too though, as I read that he maybe approached it too fast? However Citroen as a team have acknowledged they have big suspension issues, and have confirmed they have an update coming later in the year to fix the "problems".
Again in Portugal, Meeke was on the pace and either Meeke or Paddon were about to take the lead of the rally, but a really stupid error ended his chances. That mistake, along with his 2nd crash in Argentina were needless.
So i personally don't think we need to go too overboard about Meeke just yet. He's always been a very fast driver prone to errors, but there have been other mitigating circumstances this year on top of his own performance. Despite that, the margins are still very small and Meeke more than likely would've been the first driver to win two events this year - if his engine didn't blow up in Corsica. The reason why i feel there's a huge reaction to his low pts tally is because too many people expected way too much from him and the returning Citroen. I mean, he was favourite for the championship with the bookies ffs. That's where the money was going....
The question now is; does Meeke force himself to drive at 95% and take a few 3rd and 4th places like Sordo and Tanak have been doing this season? Or seeing that he has nothing to lose, will he keep driving at 100% looking for wins (which is what Citreon's sole objective is for this year)? Maybe having Andreas as a team mate now will push him to up his game....
Maybe he/they were favourites after they took the 2016 WRC off to prepare and test their 2017 car.
Plus the C3 was 'built-around' Meeke and his engineering background was said to be key.
Neither of them has any excuse.
Come on, Tänak has been going 100% all season, but he's had his technical problems and small mistakes taking good positions away. And Sordo, I don't think he ever had a winning pace but he rarely makes a mistake and thus gets decent results. Actually, Breen is becoming the new Sordo.
Wrong. Tänak has said that he hasn't yet been fully on this year apart some stages maybe. Sweden day 2 for example and monte's first stages and last one of course. He said that he was actually surprised that he won the fafe power stage in Portugal because he didn't give everything there.
Meeke will feel even more pressure now that Mikkelsen is in. And pressure for Meeke means more prone to errors.
I regret to say that even at 95% he crashes…like in Portugal. It’s true he managed to lead during first day, but he didn’t look the usual flat out Meeke. Stages times also indicate that he wasn’t able to take advantage from starting order. I’d love to think that the problem is at the car, but rationally we must believe that Breen isn’t yet at Meeke’s level, so the car surely worth more than P5. Really hoping Meeke manages to sort things out in Italy. He deserves better.
#1. Crash in a left-hand corner while carrying too much speed.
#2. Could be setup problems, or trying too hard. + roll on a pre-event testing.
#3. Win, that almost ended in tears and a massive crash.
#4. Was doing really well, until the engine blew, could have been a perfect event, but who knows.
#5. again, 2x crashes, maybe a bit car-related but still...
#6. Mistake
And when you look at the past you can see a similar pattern. Great driver, absolutely capable of winning (an) event(s) but i dont`t think that he could take the championship.
he had that attitude back in 2009 when he was driving in the IRC.
it has been the same issue all the way through his career. just look at the stats at ewrc, he has a DNF percentage of 33%. pretty much double that of most wrc drivers.
https://www.ewrc-results.com/profile/70-kris-meeke/
I disagree with the idea that the C3 is a "touring car" built by "touring car engineers". This team built the Xsara, C4 and DS3, I doubt they forgot how to build a rally car in the space of a few years. Not to mention a lot of emphasis was put on their break year and how Meeke was leading the development of the car. So any excuses on this front are weak.
To me it seems that Meeke is in a similar way to Petter Solberg, he can drive fast but doesn't have the best mental attitude. Intentional or not, if he's not fastest he pushes and takes risks and usually it ends in tears. ALL of Meeke's wins have come in favorable road order conditions.
With this approach he will never be world champion because there are enough drivers who are at least as fast, even excluding Ogier, who can put pressure on him and with his attitude he will throw away a lot of points. One of the reasons Ogier won 4 titles was that he accepted when he can't win and even if he was pushing he wasn't going over the limit and accepted a podium. I like the guy but now I kind of doubt he will be WDC. Better chances have Neuville, Tanak or even Latvala.
Maybe Meeke just need a bit different approach from the team boss? Latvala has been quite similar to Meeke, either winning it, binning it or hopelessly somewhere in the mid-field. I still remember the comment Latvala gave after winning in Sweden, where he said that Mäkinen just told him to go and drive. And not to think about anything else.
Latvala has had a pretty consistent season this year. Okay, he is 40 points off Ogier. But he has had only one bad rally point-wise. Latvala is known for his fragility, so something big must have changed since leaving VW.
Over pushing comes from the head of the driver.
Quite "Franky" I don't understand what Latvala has to do with this discussion. If it helps you alleviate the pain, than OK, otherwise lets keep on focus please.
I don't think Meeke's problem is mental. I think it's more his drive that leads to errors more easily
People need to stop quoting that jparker guy, he's clearly an imbecile.