Vodafone Rally de Portugal 2017 [May 18-21]

[Eli]

Honestly, I'm beginning to think the reason Ogier always wins the championship is because of his consistency rather than speed. The silly mistakes you constantly see Latvala, Meeke and Neuville making? Ogier very rarely makes mistakes like that, and if he does, he's lucky enough to usually get away without serious damage or time lost. Even if Ogier doesn't win the rally, he is usually not far away, and scoring good points that sustain his lead.

He wins through sheer precision. His rivals do all the work for him, by crashing.

Imagine if Neuville hadn't thrown away his Monte and Sweden wins. He would have been leading the championship comfortably.

Couldn't have put it in to words better than that.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[AnttiL]

Ogier knows how to avoid stones and other hazards, how to save tyres and overall knows when to push and when to take it carefully. That's why he is so good. And of course when he's pushing, he's faster than anyone. But he's also lucky.

[mknight]

His offs are usually at low speed where he can afford to push the car little more than normal, except that off-road excursion in Argentina, but that seemed like a pace note problem rather than over the limit off, and the speed wasn't big there either. So yes, it is his pacenotes/driving which makes the difference.

He even said it in Monte himself after running on the field. He knew that there was open field so he pushed a bit more and it was too much. In the Monte case he comes from the area but even on other rallies with mostly same stages every year and the endless hours they spend watching the onboards from previous years and/or recce these kind of things are possible.

Compare that with Meeke in Portugal who went wide on just about the single corner of the rally with large concrete blocks on the outside. Also while talking about it, Neuville had basically 3 big moments in Argentina (2 jumps - SS2 and SS4? (where meeke went off), and then SS10).

If Ogier keeps top3 speed for rest of the year he should have no problems to win the champ.

[Eli]

If Ogier keeps top3 speed for rest of the year he should have no problems to win the champ.

The question is, if he manages to win the WDC & the Manufacturer's title this year and Ford doesn't comeback, will he honestly leave M-Sport after all the development work this year?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

[Watson]

The question is, if he manages to win the WDC & the Manufacturer's title this year and Ford doesn't comeback, will he honestly leave M-Sport after all the development work this year?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Tough call. Where is he gonna go anyway? I'm pretty sure Neuville wouldn't like to have his biggest rival in his own team, Latvala seems to have a real downer around Ogier plus Seb already ditched Toyota for M-Sport this year.

So we're left with Citroen who surely would like a competent Frenchman in the team. But they are having a nightmare and it would be at least as risky to bet on them building a challenging car for next year as M-Sport.

May I just add that if M-Sport wins even either of the titles and Ford don't come back they are batshit crazy anyway.

[AnttiL]

And to add to the equation that Citroen and Hyundai already have contracts for their current drivers for next year (apparently Toyota does not). Although I'm not sure if Citroen would put Lefebvre into a fourth car if Ogier would give them a call?

[EstWRC]

But if Ford isnt coming back then he will leave 100%. i wrote it already some pages back that Wilson said it clearly yesterday that they will survive this year but not next one if Ford doesnt come back and without Ford they cant afford keep Seb another year or years.


i havent watched the red bull TV review myself but i saw these quotes from autosport forum:

"His interview on red bull tv today was interesting though - would be a brave person who puts money on him staying at M sport next year
Basically said team are waiting on ford to decide whether to come back as full factory effort, if they don't he'll be off elsewhere as he needs to drive for a works team in 2018 "

[BigWorm]

Honestly, I'm beginning to think the reason Ogier always wins the championship is because of his consistency rather than speed. The silly mistakes you constantly see Latvala, Meeke and Neuville making? Ogier very rarely makes mistakes like that, and if he does, he's lucky enough to usually get away without serious damage or time lost. Even if Ogier doesn't win the rally, he is usually not far away, and scoring good points that sustain his lead.

He wins through sheer precision. His rivals do all the work for him, by crashing.

Imagine if Neuville hadn't thrown away his Monte and Sweden wins. He would have been leading the championship comfortably.

I don't think that's completely true. Yes he's very consistent, but he's incredibly quick as well. His records from 2013 prove that.

[Fitz]

When I was at the autosport chatting some m-sport guys said Red Bull pay his 7.5 million.
Seems possible?

They also said they redesigned the switches etc so it was like the Polo & moved the passenger footrest for Julienne. All of which was done over the Xmas break.

[Watson]

Basically said team are waiting on ford to decide whether to come back as full factory effort, if they don't he'll be off elsewhere as he needs to drive for a works team in 2018 "

That would just make it all the more crazy for Ford not to return though. M-Sport will have trouble to stay in contention in terms of development and they lose THE driver of the present. Ford still uses M-Sports efforts for publicity, the return on investment must look right if you consider how much more they could do as a full factory team.

But who knows. Business people are weird.