Ott Tänak - Future champion?

[cali]

Some of you just cannot realise that he was driving on DMacks!! You cannot draw any conclusions from that.

Actually Tänak has quite neat driving style, but in Wales we had very slippery conditions and DMack's grip level is unknown. It might as well be that in order to drive fast and stay on the road he needed to throw the car around more. And I've seen plenty of his driving in a VW Golf, Renault Clio, Impreza Gr.N and Fiesta S2000.

This is for guys from southern hemisphere: please do not bring Paddon again into Tänak discussions. Specially those biased opinions. I'm estonian and trying not to be overenthusiastic about Tänak as he has still long way to go. You try to do the same

[Mintexmemory]

Sorry Tanak seems to have a greater momentum already than Juho, I don't believe Haninen is ever going to be a WRC champ - just a good No2 perhaps at VW, time is slipping away for him.

[rubla]

As i see, there are two ways of becoming champ - from slower to fast&consistent or from too-fast to fast&consistent. When Petter started on WRC cars years ago, he was instantly fast, but crashed a lot. No he doesnt crash that much but somehow some speed seems to be gone also. JML also reminds me somewhat Petter in his early years. And seems that Ott is cut of same material.
Markko at same time was not always up to Petter's speed, but made much less mistakes. On few years, they traded wins both ways, both were reasonably fast and consistent. But we have to remember that there are many guys who also start with reasonable consistency and many see some potential in them, but they never quite make it.
Then there is Loeb, who stepped on stage roughly same, but whom i for some time didnt think as champion material because of lasck of speed on loose surface (boy, was i wrong :P ), there have always been fast guys on tarmac who never quite make it on loose stuff - Panizzi and Duval are 2 of my favourites from past.

[Leon]

I find it sad to have so many up and coming young drivers and soooo few if any works seats to fill.....

[AndyRAC]

I find it sad to have so many up and coming young drivers and soooo few if any works seats to fill.....

I agree, I still think the new car regs were a missed opportunity. They should & could have been cheaper still – and I’m sure more Manufacturers would have signed up. Only 2 extra have joined, and one has major doubts about next year for a full programme. The other won’t join for another year. So where are the rest??

[bluuford]

Some of you just cannot realise that he was driving on DMacks!! You cannot draw any conclusions from that.

It was often visible that he was fastest on the first part of the stage and got slower as the stage progressed. Might be the fact that DMack copiled so soft tyres for GB that they just overheated by the end of longer stages. Remember that from saturday night the rain stopped and roads dryed up a little. First morning stage was still very wet and he got the third best time.

Actually Tänak has quite neat driving style, but in Wales we had very slippery conditions and DMack's grip level is unknown. It might as well be that in order to drive fast and stay on the road he needed to throw the car around more. And I've seen plenty of his driving in a VW Golf, Renault Clio, Impreza Gr.N and Fiesta S2000.

Same here.

And I just double checked that Tänak lost approximately 2:23, when he had the overheating problem and 53.6 sec when the same stage was used second time - then he had an oil pressure problem. Theese were the stages Myherin 1 and 2. So, we can approximate it to 3 minutes (compared to normal pace). That makes the final loss to less than 6:30 and third place indeed.

Moreover, He lost a lot in SS11 which was foggy and he was among those who had to drive it in the darkness. he lost around 1:30 there as well.
But we never know and there is no point to sell fishes before you actually catch some:-)

He also

[Barreis]

We'll see next season how he'll do against Loeb.

[EuroTroll]

I remember when Markko was asked in the stellar season of 2003 how many championships he thought he'd win in the future. Wisely, he said he hoped at least one. As we found out in 2005, against Grönholm at Peugeot, he didn't really have what it takes. And then there was the accident.

Will Ott ever win one? If I'm honest, I don't think so. He's too inconsistent. The "Tänak attack" is great and we've seen he has tremendous speed, but keeping it consistently on the road has been a problem... Imagine him having to go through an entire season without mistakes. I can't.

That said, I think he can become a serious player in the WRC and I think he will win rallies. Which would be great enough!

[EuroTroll]

I just genuinely laughed out loud Duval never looked that good! Hilarious!

I disagree and agree wholeheartedly with Ridder. Duval did look like the dog's bollocks (i.e the box deluxe) at one time, before moving to Citroen. He was winning stages left and right, and he was still young!

But things change, and he seemed to lose it all when pitted against the Seb..

[BDunnell]

Will Ott ever win one? If I'm honest, I don't think so.

Sadly, I think that of almost every driver in the WRC at present. The depth of talent just isn't there.