yes he might be.... but in RallyX he did that and even more.... without a full season.
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Dear mate! You have to have the whole history before saying what you say. Did you know Mattias has been rallying a WRC car in an WRC event? Have you seen him live (back then in 2002 or something dancing with his Evo IV GrN) only with a couple of rallies behind him?
You might think you can prove anything but don´t say what type of driver Mattias Ekström is before you know the big picture.
I know, I looked up his record before posting, but unfortunately never got to see him live nor I followed his career ever closely. I don't doubt that he had potential as a rally driver, but restarting his rally (not rallycross) career in his late 30s and be successful is bit overoptimistic I think.
Maybe it helps that is your compatriot ;)
I suppose Ekstrom is attending some races also because he has an own team, maybe he is testing :) or more over attracting sponsor
I know what you were saying. But Ekstrom and Solberg are not the only two who have won races this season...ergo Bakkerud, Nitiss, Foust and Heikkinen have all beaten Solberg and, IMO are all pretty decent drivers. Are they of the class of someone like Ogier? No, but then very few people are or ever have been.
To put it simply... a sport is legitimate when the main participants are the best at that sport and no "outlander" can just visit their turf and ridicule them.
You keep saying 'ridicule' and the like, but Ekstrom just hooked it up on one event but has been mediocre at other times despite having a superior car.
I do understand the point though- but RX is a very different sport to most. It doesn't undermine the lead drivers' quality if wildcards can compete at the top, but just shows how unpredictable the sport is. For example, when Loeb entered in Loheac last year he was nowhere, despite being possibly the greatest motorsport driver ever! Yet a joker like Block came in and fluked his way to a podium!