[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[sollitt]

more excuses than actual results... .

Clearly you know nothing about the subject matter. There are many results & very few excuses.

[N.O.T]

results against nobodies... and in his first WRC car event was struggling to beat the hamburger boy tourist Prokop...

As i said he is fast and good to watch... but i see no potential to become a challenger.... let alone champion.

[faateris]

Can You all stop talk about Paddon?????? For somebody he is new Loeb(for me ), but, will be results, then talk..... Now question is, which rally Hyundai will finish all stages.

[Mirek]

Now question is, which rally Hyundai will finish all stages.

2 beers on Fafe rallysprint

[stefanvv]

Now question is, which rally Hyundai will finish all stages.

2 beers on Fafe rallysprint

I'm tempted to take that bet

[journeyman racer]

It's interesting to review the winners of the WRC over the past 30 or so years. Loeb, Solberg, Gronholm, Burns, McRae, Auriol, Sainz etc, etc... They, almost without exception, have all won at least their own national title. And often it is these domestic competitions, where resources, machinery, local knowledge & experience are comparable, that are the hardest to win.

Forget Rallying. I think you've made a good point about motorsport generally. As someone who can remember Mark Webber before he was a Aus fford front runner. I have the opinion that Mark's complacent pre-f1 career caught up with him at RB, and contributed to him missing out on the '10 title.

[litifeta]

Whether it is Paddon or someone else, the best thing about these forums is going back and reading predictions people made in the past, and their accuracy, or lack thereof.

[skarderud]

Compare those past WRC champions to those sitting in cars today. Hirvonen, Latvala, Ostberg ... What have they actually ever won? Do they actually know how to win, or can they only pull it off when those in front fall over?

Comprehend that!

Mads østberg is Norwegian Champion in 2007-2009, against the likes of Andreas Mikkelsen and Anders grøndal.
Not exactly "a walk in the park"

2008 season was the famous "daddy grand prix" year, that was a really good season!

I think Mads also has won close to everything he has participated in germany, estonia/Latvia, sweden and norway thru the years to, so he is a winner, no doubt.

[litifeta]

Mikko: 2002 Finish Group A Rally Champion. 15 WRC wins, 252 stage wins. 2nd in the championship on 4 occasions, and 3rd in the championship on 2 occasions.
Jari-Matti: 9 WRC wins, 300 stage wins. 2nd in the championship on 1 occasion, and 3rd in the championship on 2 occasions.

Lots of drivers 'deserve' a ride. But the economy is stuffed. It comes down to who has a better manager I guess.

[Mirek]

IMO telling that winning national championship make somebody a WRC champion material is nonsense. There are hundreds of drivers who are able to win national championships even multiple times but there are few drivers who can challenge WRC title. That is simple fact. One of the reasons is that national championships are held still on the same roads and You don't learn anything new there. These guys are usually called local specialists and yes they are tough on home roads but hardly elsewhere. Also to say that cars on national level are more equal than on WRC level is not true. In most of the countries there are only very few top cars followed by plenty of old ones. Also only few national drivers have enough budget for large testing etc.

But sure some point is in it. I remember when I talked with Martin Semerád some years a go (youngest ever PWRC event winner if You remember - before he retired after an accident in which his co-driver died). He told me he doesn't like driving at Czech home roads because to succeed he would need to take insane risk against drivers who drive the same roads for twenty years. It's sad coincidence that what happened two years later fits in what he said.