Please Mikko, something different this time!! (an open letter)

[stefanvv]

[kirungi okwogera]

What is Ogier's fault that Loeb runs away like a coward? What lesser achievment are you talking about when Loeb's last 5 titles are totally meaningless and he almost lost 2 of them from nothing?

I understand completely the feeling of disliking Loeb and his accomplishments for having made the competition boring. But he made the competition boring by being the absolute best bar none for a decade. You say five titles don't count. Why? Because the competition was not as good as him? That's logical.

And calling him a coward running away makes you look even more senseless and illogical about Loeb. This isn't boxing. It's racing. There will always be a new competitor. By your conditions Ogier is a coward not to face Paolo Nobre and Daniel Oliveira last year. And Ogier is obviously a huge wimp not to ever compete with Gronholm, Makinen, Sainz, McRae and all the champions Loeb fought with and beat. So any championships Ogier ever wins will also "mean nothing" because he didn't have a one-on-one fight with every good driver you can think of in the WRC, past and future. And what if Ogier retires before facing a full season against whoever becomes champion later? Does that make him weak and his accomplishment meaningless?

Sorry to go offtopic but seriously, you can dislike Loeb for what the sport became while he reigned but you will never convince anyone that Loeb isn't the best driver of the past decade. Accepting that doesn't mean you have to like him!

To bring Hirvonen into this, I personally still think he has a decent chance to fight Ogier. I certainly hope so to prevent another multi-year domination. Some real fights are always good.

[6789]

Who else thinks 2013 could be a repeat of 2010 for Mikko. Pushing to hard and crashing or just not on the pace? Should be interesting come Mexico

[A FONDO]

By your conditions Ogier is a coward not to face Paolo Nobre and Daniel Oliveira last year.

He didnt face them because he is MAN with BALLS and left the Citroen liars at the end of 2011.

what if Ogier retires before facing a full season against whoever becomes champion later? Does that make him weak and his accomplishment meaningless?

We will think about it when that time comes.

Sorry to go offtopic but seriously, you can dislike Loeb for what the sport became while he reigned but you will never convince anyone that Loeb isn't the best driver of the past decade. Accepting that doesn't mean you have to like him!

The best driver in a factory team of the past decade - of course I agree with this. And I never said he ruined anything!!

I certainly hope so to prevent another multi-year domination. Some real fights are always good.

I hope even stronger than you to see different winner at every rally and 3-4 drivers in less than a minute in the final overalls!

[Plan9]

Who else thinks 2013 could be a repeat of 2010 for Mikko. Pushing to hard and crashing or just not on the pace? Should be interesting come Mexico

Wait till Mexico to make a proper judgement but it looks like Mikko is trying too hard. I have been blown away by the Polo-Ogier combination, if Ogier wins Mexico I would suggest we are looking at a period of domination again.

[denkimi]

I understand completely the feeling of disliking Loeb and his accomplishments for having made the competition boring. But he made the competition boring by being the absolute best bar none for a decade. You say five titles don't count. Why? Because the competition was not as good as him? That's logical.

And calling him a coward running away makes you look even more senseless and illogical about Loeb. This isn't boxing. It's racing. There will always be a new competitor. By your conditions Ogier is a coward not to face Paolo Nobre and Daniel Oliveira last year. And Ogier is obviously a huge wimp not to ever compete with Gronholm, Makinen, Sainz, McRae and all the champions Loeb fought with and beat. So any championships Ogier ever wins will also "mean nothing" because he didn't have a one-on-one fight with every good driver you can think of in the WRC, past and future. And what if Ogier retires before facing a full season against whoever becomes champion later? Does that make him weak and his accomplishment meaningless?

Sorry to go offtopic but seriously, you can dislike Loeb for what the sport became while he reigned but you will never convince anyone that Loeb isn't the best driver of the past decade. Accepting that doesn't mean you have to like him!

To bring Hirvonen into this, I personally still think he has a decent chance to fight Ogier. I certainly hope so to prevent another multi-year domination. Some real fights are always good.

Loeb is not a coward because he's retiring, nobody can go on forever. he's a coward because of the events in the citroen team in 2011. he showed back then, that he can't handle a team mate who's just as quick or perhaps even quicker. instead of trying to beat him fair and square, he just enforced teamorders and kicked him out of the team.

[awake27]

Loeb is not a coward because he's retiring, nobody can go on forever. he's a coward because of the events in the citroen team in 2011. he showed back then, that he can't handle a team mate who's just as quick or perhaps even quicker. instead of trying to beat him fair and square, he just enforced teamorders and kicked him out of the team.

It was the coward Loeb of 1-Sweden, 2-Mexico, 3-Portugal, 4-Jordan, 5-Sardegna, 6-Argentina or the coward Ogier (with the help of Quesnel and Smeets who is in VW now) of 7-Acropolis that shuted down the tracking in the night stage and lied afterwards in public that he didn't do any tactic? When you abuse the internal line of competition to splitting completely the team to factions, be prepared some of the two will be ousted (Allen-Rohl-Fiat, Senna-Prost-McLaren, McRae-Sainz-Subaru, Alonso-Hamilton-McLaren). As eventually happened they all three got kicked out at the end of the year.

[dimviii]

It was the coward Loeb of 1-Sweden, 2-Mexico, 3-Portugal, 4-Jordan, 5-Sardegna, 6-Argentina or the coward Ogier (with the help of Quesnel and Smeets who is in VW now) of 7-Acropolis that shuted down the tracking in the night stage and lied afterwards in public that he didn't do any tactic? When you abuse the internal line of competition to splitting completely the team to factions, be prepared some of the two will be ousted (Allen-Rohl-Fiat, Senna-Prost-McLaren, McRae-Sainz-Subaru, Alonso-Hamilton-McLaren). As eventually happened they all three got kicked out at the end of the year.

dont bother with antiLoeb people.

[COD]

Well well, even with clever tactical move Mikko couldn't take points on the PS in Sweden. Tells all about his pace. Lots of 4th place's in gravel this year, on tarmac not even that...

[MAXLD]

Indeed, is already looking to be a troubled year to Mikko... but specially for Citroen.

In my opinion, they crucially failed (or were "unlucky") in 2 specific time frames:
- Loeb/Ogier: if they had kept Ogier, he would now take Loeb's place and continue to provide Citroen a consistent winning form... but Loeb wasn't retiring yet and Ogier mentality isn't the one to settle down and wait.
- Loeb retirement/replacement: when they finally had to find a replacement there wasn't anyone fast and stable enough... so they had to play safe and make a "points gatherer" team for both driver's and manufacturer's championship, Mikko for consistency points on snow and gravel and Sordo for filling the gap on tarmac. I have a hard time to believe that Citroen thought Mikko was a fast driver to dominate and win a lot of rallies (or maybe they thought their car was so much better, that they could still reign).

The major problem is that Mikko isn't providing what is at least expected of him: points and podium places, and that is quite a problem, considering his vast experience in WRC and expertise in snowy conditions (these should be good events for good points). He spent all weekend saying we was betting all-in for Power Stage, for those points, and he didn't even get one, not even with tactics. I bet team confidence isn't very high at this moment. Loeb saved the day/weekend for the team and diverged attentions from the disaster weekend for both official drivers... and even Seb wasn't perfect and able to react to Ogier's massive determination.

It's only the second round of the championship, maybe things get a bit different later on, but I think this year will be Yves Matton constantly "facepalming", instead of Malcolm Wilson(who will actually be glad to have gambled on new drivers who are looking good so far for points and wins).