Prodrive Mini WRC

[Plan9]

I wasn't asking for someone elses take on what he ment.. as is known on here now i work at prodrive and i know exactly who does what!

Im asking JAM to explain his interpretation of how the relationship works seeing as he seems to have all the answers...

Well, as long as it doesn't cost you a job what are your thoughts on Motorsport Italia? How do you rate Armindo?

[Peugeot206WRC]

Clearly you are forgetting the best rallyes that Armindo has done during one decade. And you are forgeting that in Portugal and on PWRC his best exibitions were in slipery conditions.

And if that Mini is not crap, how can Daniel Oliveira in a Fiesta be faster than Armindo? How Daniel recovered the 2 to 3sec / km that we has losing to Armindo last year in a Mini? Sudenly Daniel learn how to drive fast?

Armindo could be a C level driver, but his perfomance in Mexico, Portugal and Argentina is from a D or E or F level driver.

Just saw this video, and Im no expert, it seems Daniel couldve improved a lot since last season.
WRC Onboards 2011: Argentina - Daniel Oliveira SS08 - YouTube
I mean.. 6 left is 4th gear.. trying 3rd, redline, ok go up to 4th again..
5 left he go with 4th gear, next time 3rd gear.
He is definitly not using the car to its limits. Havent seen any onboards with the Fiesta though.

[JAM]

Can you explain this please.....

Which part do you want to see explained?

[Co-driven]

Just saw this video, and Im no expert, it seems Daniel couldve improved a lot since last season.
WRC Onboards 2011: Argentina - Daniel Oliveira SS08 - YouTube
I mean.. 6 left is 4th gear.. trying 3rd, redline, ok go up to 4th again..
5 left he go with 4th gear, next time 3rd gear.
He is definitly not using the car to its limits. Havent seen any onboards with the Fiesta though.

Yeah, I don't know whether he improved that much from last season or not. The thing is that he's been faster on the last events, he only lacks a bit more consistency.

This weekend he's contesting Rally de Tucumán, third round of the Argentine National Championship, with a VW Gol Maxi Rally. On shakedown he set the fourth fastest time, just one tenth of a second behind Federico Villagra. Let's see his performance throughout the weekend and check whether he has improved that much.

[JAM]

It seems that bubbaontour already knows all the story and don't want my explanations

Nice, is a sign that he already understood the relationship and the lack of results

[Plan9]

Getting info about this topic is basically like getting blood out of a stone this year.

[bubbaontour]

It seems that bubbaontour already knows all the story and don't want my explanations

Nice, is a sign that he already understood the relationship and the lack of results

We have a great relationship, I personally did mexico with the guys on AA's car. There a great bunch of people and i found them nothing more than welcoming and professional.

All i wanted you to explain was how you come to the conclusion that the cars we give them aren't 'Decent' and what your idea of 'Basic maintenance' is?

[JAM]

We have a great relationship, I personally did mexico with the guys on AA's car. There a great bunch of people and i found them nothing more than welcoming and professional.

All i wanted you to explain was how you come to the conclusion that the cars we give them aren't 'Decent' and what your idea of 'Basic maintenance' is?

Basic maintenance is everything that don't deal with the preparation of the components. Engine, gearbox, and all this stuff came from Prodrive and they only mount it on the car. The setups of the car are managed by the engneer that came from Prodrive. So, Motorsport Italia aka WRC Team Mini Portugal can do only basic things on the car.

How do i explain my conclusion about the "decent" car? Obviously by the results. Not even with a brand new car in Portugal the perfomance improved. The best Armindo's perfomance with a Mini, was in Portugal 2011 when drove the car for the first time, since then things always went down and down, and this year dramatically down.

How do you explain that on the debut of Mini on the WRC in 2011, with a S2000 1.6T version, he was faster than in all rallyes with a WRC version mounted on the same chassis? The same happened with Patrik Flodin, a great perfomance with the Grifone's S2000 1.6T in Sardinia (better than Araujo with the WRC), and a crap of a perfomance in Germany with the WRC version like Armindo. Why these two privaters were not able to be fast with the WRC version like they were with the S2000 1.6t version?

If you want to study the situation, try to find a WRC rally in wich a private Mini was consistently faster then Armindo. There's none! Flodin was faster in Sardinia, but with a S2000 car.

Look at Pierre Campana. The guy was slow with a private Mini in Germany and his home rally in France, slowest than Armindo. But suddenly in Monte Carlo Campana made a reborn! Ohhh no, it was not a reborn, it was a change of car. In MC he was in a Prodrive Mini. Isn't his an evidence that somethiung is wrong with the private Mini's?

Is this kind of cars that Prodrive wants to sell to privaters? Of course that this don't give much confidence to every one who wants to buy a WRC car.

[JAM]

And another thing about this Prodrive saga. Prodrive shouldn't complain about Mini lack of support. Mini supported all the terms that were on the agreement, it was Prodrive that failled in finding sponsors to this year, and is Prodrive that failled in selling cars (one of their source of money to the project).

And i repeat, with the perfomance shown by private Mini's, its dificult to sell cars. Prodrive should look at this, as one of the reasons of why people don't buy Mini JCW WRC. The private Mini's are all slow, the slow drivers that drive these cars are being even slower. Daniel Oliveira proved that is much much faster in a private Fiesta than was in a private Mini.

He have a lot of examples that prove my point, so i don't understand why someone have doubts about what i say.

And there's a lot of things that could be said, but i think this is enough and these evidences are public.

[Cacatua]

Fellow JAM, I understand you're Portuguese and you probably think Araujo is 2 time better than an average supporter thinks he is actually, and maybe you're right. What I don't agree is throwing this pile of **** on everything to justify this. There's no need of this.

Because facts are facts, what Araujo has so far shown until now is:

- Impressive performance in a Mini S2000 in Rally Portual.
- Good efforts on PWRC.

In WRC:
- All stage times below the 10th position in pair.
- The best S2000 faster than him as a general rule.
- No improvements in a WRC.
- 1 to 2 seconds slower than Sordo (Top driver, but not sure if he is "a Loeb" yet) when he is running.
- Average performance at his home event. Nothing to highlight.

So fellow, really, give it up. When he has been World Champ, throw it on me but until then, accept the reality. We are all glad and happy having him in WRC, he deserves the opportunity more than others and he is a good driver, I mean it. But I've seen many of them who I thought they deserved to be here missing the opportunity but showing something more with much less than Araujo (Gigi Galli, Duval, Meeke, Dani Solà, etc.)