Kris Meeke

[lankey555]

He will need someone for WRC Finland in the Rally 1 car 😁

[raffrantic]

Meeke is not easiest driver in the world to codriving

[er88]

I've always felt his notes are too detailed at times. Sometimes hard to follow the notes on some of his onboards, it's information overload. Good luck to Kris & James though, Meeke isn't going to massively alter his notes at this stage of his career.

[Danny0405]

I don't mean to sound harsh, but HMSG are the multi-million dollar motorsport arm of a multi-billion dollar corporation, whose main aim is beating Toyota to the manufacturers' championship.

There won't be a gentleman's agreement. There will be someone brought in to do the rallies that Sordo doesn't want to do / isn't so good at. There's no logic in asking for more from a driver like Sordo, who's not so motivated to do rallies he doesn't enjoy, when arguably his powers are waning even on ones he likes.

Paddon, Mikkelsen, Meeke, all the same names that were apparently in the frame at the end of 2022 will be in the frame again. I'd like to see someone like Lindholm or Rossel given a go on rallies that suit them (Finland / Estonia and Central Europe / Japan respectively) but it's not so likely I guess.

You’re probably right... however, I doubt Hyundai can hire a driver that makes a significant difference at this stage of the season (and on the other hand, Katsuta is quite in dire situation this season) so this type of deal would have make sense for Hyundai and Toyota.
And a young driver doesn’t really make a lot of sense: Lindholm beginning of season is so-so and only other one really deserving (Rossel) has almost never driven in fast gravel.
And they will need to give this driver a real training if they want this to make sense (probably giving him a Finnish or Estonian National Rally + Safari in the car to get used to it).

We could assume Hyundai is probably waiting for Portugal to make the decision (where a lot of contenders for the spot will be).
Sporting-wise, most logical would be Suninen IMO: makes both Estonia and Finland last two years, wins Finland back-to-back in RC2 last two years (excluding administrative issues), 3.2s behind Mikkelsen before issue in last stage in Estonia last year and the most recent to have been ejected from top-class in the Mikkelsen-Ostberg-Paddon-Meeke group. He also knows Chile and Japan and has made some testing with the Rally1 car. Younger also.
Would need to give the RC2 car to another driver in Estonia and Finland: Paddon sounds the best choice for it with some fast gravel rallies in ERC to prepare this time.
Except if Hyundai pulls out a rabbit of the hat (such as Loeb for Safari and Chile and a guy only for Estonia-Finland but highly doubt it would be efficient).

[lankey555]

Why did Kris not restart rally on Saturday?

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Why did Kris not restart rally on Saturday?

No real point as the Portuguese Championship only does day one, plus no chance of a good WRC2 result