Hello from Antony Warmbold

[Tomi]

Hello, I have tried to address this subject in Chapter 14, which is up now.

from your team atleast Grönholm did have a mental trainer back then, Latvala has the same trainer now, both are private arranigments, not from M-Sport.

[jonas_mcrae]

Hello Antony,

I want to ask your opinion about the 2005 season and specially about Dani Sola. I was lookign at some results from the 2005 season, and in the rallyes he was entered, you outperformed him in ALL but australia, where he finnished 7th and you retired. In the other rallies he competed in, he reitred and you got to the finnish (mexico 7th, japan 9th, France 13th, Spain 7th). For me, it sounds a little bit strange that a national and JWRC champion (just after Loeb and BEFORE Sordo and Andersson) like Dani could retire in so many rallyes in a FACTORY car. was he trying too hard? or maybe he was not given the same car as Gardemeister and was trying to catch up? what did it feel to see Dani not finishing in a factory car and you outperforming him? Did you ever think you had a better shot than him on that season?

thanks in advance

[mousti]

I know this is off topic alittle, but is the F-Cup like the WRC or the Australian Rally Championship where the guy with the biggest budget wins?

Those prices are cheap so here real talent with some sponsors can really win that cup ! National Championship have mostly WRC cars on the start who costs hundreds of thousands euros and running costs are also very expensive and there can a gentlemen driver win if there is no real fast driver with a WRC.

[N.O.T]

Hello Antony,

I want to ask your opinion about the 2005 season and specially about Dani Sola. I was lookign at some results from the 2005 season, and in the rallyes he was entered, you outperformed him in ALL but australia, where he finnished 7th and you retired. In the other rallies he competed in, he reitred and you got to the finnish (mexico 7th, japan 9th, France 13th, Spain 7th). For me, it sounds a little bit strange that a national and JWRC champion (just after Loeb and BEFORE Sordo and Andersson) like Dani could retire in so many rallyes in a FACTORY car. was he trying too hard? or maybe he was not given the same car as Gardemeister and was trying to catch up? what did it feel to see Dani not finishing in a factory car and you outperforming him? Did you ever think you had a better shot than him on that season?

thanks in advance

that is propaganda....please do not use words like outperformed.....i would like to have 10 solas/novikov(the 2009 version) than 100 warmbolds/wilson to fill the spots. The mistake of sola/novikov was that they did not have safe backing their approach was perfect and with 2-3 more years they could reach the top spots.

[jonas_mcrae]

ok Mr perfect grammar what words should I use? he was ahead of Sola, the definition of outperform is "perform better than"... wasnt that what happened? 7th is better than retiring isnt it?

And you are saying Novikov and Sola didnt have safe backing? come on! Novikov is loaded (financed his WRC entries the same as Warmbold did) and Sola had enough backing to first do the spanish championship, then JWRC, part of PWRC and then FACTORY support from Mitsubishi and finally drove a factory Focus backed by Telefonica and RACC. He had his chance and missed it, although I have to admit WRC was a tougher championship back then. And finally I have nothing against Mr Sola, actually he was one of my favorite drivers back then, met him in Mexico and in Catalunya and he is agreat guy, I just want to know Antony's inside view of what whent wrong with him and his car.

[Tomi]

Those prices are cheap so here real talent with some sponsors can really win that cup ! National Championship have mostly WRC cars on the start who costs hundreds of thousands euros and running costs are also very expensive and there can a gentlemen driver win if there is no real fast driver with a WRC.

I would say it depends on the national championship, here it would be impossible that a gentleman driver could win a championship.

[N.O.T]

ok Mr perfect grammar what words should I use? he was ahead of Sola, the definition of outperform is "perform better than"... wasnt that what happened? 7th is better than retiring isnt it?

And you are saying Novikov and Sola didnt have safe backing? come on! Novikov is loaded (financed his WRC entries the same as Warmbold did) and Sola had enough backing to first do the spanish championship, then JWRC, part of PWRC and then FACTORY support from Mitsubishi and finally drove a factory Focus backed by Telefonica and RACC. He had his chance and missed it, although I have to admit WRC was a tougher championship back then. And finally I have nothing against Mr Sola, actually he was one of my favorite drivers back then, met him in Mexico and in Catalunya and he is agreat guy, I just want to know Antony's inside view of what whent wrong with him and his car.

Novikov was loaded yet he did only 1 serious year...and sola had sponsors...very little came from his pocket. Sola would be a top driver if the people behiind him believed more in him...His accident at catalunya was decisive and was one of the 2 times i actually yelled "OH...^$%#%^&" at my screen when i saw his name not coming up the results board....

And no you do not outperform someone because he retires...you take advantage of the situation. and its not a word/grammar game the whole post made it sound like warmbold was a superior driver to sola.

[jonas_mcrae]

About Sola's crash in Spain, true, it was a decisive moment, he went for it and missed it, dramatic moment but that's rally, reminds a little bit of Duval, nice pace loads of crashes.

About Warmbold outperforming Sola, well, on paper it looks like it happened, sorry but its there, and will always be like that.
OK, Sola retired in most of his apperances in 2005 so comparison might be tricky, but even if you compare the results of the stage just before the retirements it doesnt look that good either, considering Sola was running a "factory" Focus.

Mexico before Sola retires: Dani 5th Antony 6th, Japan before Sola retires: Dani 13th Antony 11th, France before Sola retires: Dani 6th Antony 11th, Spain before Sola retires: Dani 8th Antony 11th and Australia before Warmbold retires: Dani 12th Antony 9th... Difference is not THAT wide is it?

And finally I doubt ANY driver starts a rally saying, "ok, I will drive very slow, get to the end, and lets hope a lot of people retire so I can take advantage of the situation" come on!

[cosmicpanda]

Wilson?

[Rich705]

Cant hold back amymore, I agree with Jonas, I think it's N.O.T who's spreading propaganda with his views, Facts don't lie - which Jonas was referring to.
I'm not sure about anybody else, but I'm getting bored of opening every thread to constantly find N.O.T spouting crap. It's like he wants to disagree with everybody else and only his opinion counts, as he's "ALWAYS" correct about everything.

Also show a bit of respect to Anthony on his own thread please, he's made the effort for fans to ask questions so if you havnt got something nice to say keep it to yourself, we don't wanna read "you'd prefer 100 driver X's than 10 Anthony Warmbold's!
You come across as a "know it all" that actually knows FA!

BTW - Hi Anthony I'm loving your blog, keep up the good work!