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Thread: Citroen WRT

  1. #531
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    Yes.. that is the line. What do you want him to do.. thank the team for laying him off. The terms years is maybe correct as the same problem were evident with DS3. You just cant disguise you hate of Meeke.
    Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
    I just saw the press conference.

    He does not walk any thin line, he criticized the team in the most harsh way possible without getting fired immediately in the very first sentence. First after than he shows some humility and tries to talk around it.

    Also he really did say "things that he was pushing for, for years". Years when the car is max 1 year old? Must mean other things in the team.

  2. Likes: KKS (27th July 2017)
  3. #532
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    Things like saying: "We are competitors so we want to compete....." totally fine...., then he adds " it was obviously not our decision" as well as "finally things are changing", things he was pushing "for years". That kind of stuff. If he only said the first sentence and then what he said for the second answer it would be perfectly diplomatic and would still get the message across.

    I cheer Meek and wish him to do well so there is more competition in the championship. But I don't think his win or nothing attitude helped Citroen at all in the first part of the season and that he should be applauded for that.


    As to the comments on DS3.... really? That DS3 that Loeb won 2 titles with? Give me a break.

  4. #533
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    Boke.. more verbal diarrhoea

    Yes you forget Loeb only had Ford to beat.

    Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
    Things like saying: "We are competitors so we want to compete....." totally fine...., then he adds " it was obviously not our decision" as well as "finally things are changing", things he was pushing "for years". That kind of stuff. If he only said the first sentence and then what he said for the second answer it would be perfectly diplomatic and would still get the message across.

    I cheer Meek and wish him to do well so there is more competition in the championship. But I don't think his win or nothing attitude helped Citroen at all in the first part of the season and that he should be applauded for that.


    As to the comments on DS3.... really? That DS3 that Loeb won 2 titles with? Give me a break.

  5. #534
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    Ok, now Loeb developed a fundamentally flawed DS3 with evident problems. BB

  6. #535
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    No it severed a purpose.
    To beat a ford.
    Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
    Ok, now Loeb developed a fundamentally flawed DS3 with evident problems. BB

  7. #536
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    If Meeke had just done what Andreas did in his last two outings (crawled around the stages and finished 8th/9th/10th in every rally), what would that have achieved for Citroen? Lefebrve and Breen give them the data from most of the stages by getting the cars home to the finish (well Breen does, Lefebrve doesn't as much).

    Meeke is the only driver who has actually showed the car CAN be fast. In fact he would have won twice if it wasn't for the car breaking down in Corisca. Things would look even worse for Citroen if the team had no idea that there was pace in the car. Meeke has proved it can be a winning car, and that it can fight for rally wins in certain circumstances.

    That data at least proves that the car isn't a total dog. It needs a few big tweaks, but I still believe it doesn't need a complete overhaul ( and that's only because Meeke has won and led rallies in it).

    Nobody can deny that he's crashed too much, but Citroen would be lost if it wasn't for him showing the car isn't totally useless.



    Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

  8. Likes: AndyRAC (27th July 2017),b3637853 (27th July 2017),cali (27th July 2017),dimviii (27th July 2017),Eli (27th July 2017)
  9. #537
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    That is all well and true all the way down to Argentina after first crash....
    At that point it was clear that the car can be fast, it was also clear that it probably had some issues and a change of approach was needed. The second crash in Argentina and the crashes in Portugal and Sardinia did nothing except add a huge repair bill. What's more in Sardinia Matton specifically told Meeke to finish at a comfortable pace.

    But at that point Meeke was very much trapped in his own trap. [speculation] He tried to show that he can be fast with the car even though he did not agree with the engineers, by doing that, they refused to change stuff cause why change the car when it's winning rallies [/speculation].
    => Perfect self-trap from Meeke. If he would slow down they would ask "why are you not winning stages when you could in Mexico and lead in other rallies".

    So yes in hindsight it seems there was no real choice for him but to keep on pushing at that point.


    The only other option would have been to be slow from the start and keep on arguing that the car is not driveable (we have seen that on the onboard in Sweden). But I guess that starting in a lead in Mexico due to start position + overheating issues of other cars just did not let him do that.

    On a side note, Mikkelsen crawling around in Sardinia (finally) convinced Citroen to start changing the car, but it's totally not certain that Meeke doing that in Mexico would have had the same effect. After Mexico and Corsica pace it was too late.

  10. #538
    Senior Member Rally Power's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wrc2017 View Post
    That press confrence was brilliant. He walked that line between being firm and critising the team very well. He tells it as it is... defiantley friction in the team though. In this mood Meeke can win the rally, i think he is fed up with his treatment by Citroen.. and without clear instruction he will just drive like he done last year.
    There’s no doubt you’re a devoted Meeke fan, but your constant verbal diarrhoea (using your own words) makes hard for others rally fans to keep having sympathetic feelings for him. This shouldn’t be a war between Meeke and Matton/Citroen: it was Matton that sign Meeke in 2014, after Mr. Richards dump him in 2012 (BMW’s pull out isn’t an excuse, Prodrive continue entering Sordo in a large number of events); it was Matton that gave him another chance in 2015 and 2016, after a very irregular 2014 season from Meeke and it was Matton, again, that trust him the development of the new car for 2017, that Meeke permanently praised till the beginning of this year MC.

    We don’t know what really went wrong inside the team during the winter (and/or before), but between blaming Meeke for all the team misfortunes (like the french press does) and eluding his error prone driving just to point out the team faults (like the brit journos do), for sure there’s a half way where the truth rest.

    As any rally fan, I truly admire Meeke’s talent and bravery in the road and there’s no doubt he has became a icon of the sport because of his driving skills, but I see no point on promoting a few harsh remarks of today’s PC; even if he fells unfairly treated by Matton/Citroen, to avoid acting like a resented man, angry with those that allowed him to live his passion, and to focus on the driving challenge ahead is a much more positive way to go.

    Hopefully Meeke and Citroen will be on the fight for the win on this fantastic rally and wins are the best tonic to solve all kind of issues in sports, so all fingers crossed for them!
    Rally addict since 1982

  11. Likes: mknight (27th July 2017),seb_sh (27th July 2017),TWRC (28th July 2017)
  12. #539
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    The only thing i would be worried about is that if meeke does win or acheives an impressive result is that citroen will praise mikkleson for the changes and or say they were right in their decision to rest meeke in poland and not give meeke any credit which could dent the mans confidence more than some of his roofskins this last while. But lets see how it goes hopefully all citroen drivers have a trouble free safe and succesfull rally the drivers and team need it
    Last edited by wia5958; 27th July 2017 at 23:42.

  13. #540
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rally Power View Post
    after Mr. Richards dump him in 2012 (BMW’s pull out isn’t an excuse, Prodrive continue entering Sordo in a large number of events); it was Matton that gave him another chance in 2015 and 2016,
    I'm sorry, but it was explained at the time; Meeke was dropped as he had no sponsors or budget - Sordo has always had backing & sponsors.

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