TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT

[Allez Andruet]

Okay dude. Your opinion. My opinion. Tell me how I'm wrong though?

Didn't say you were wrong.

[Allez Andruet]

https://www.mtv.fi/sport/ralli/uutin...992#gs.zHfIDkU

In this 9-minute interview Tommi says that there's "going to be changes in the team" for 2018 and everything (including the new sporting director) will be announced "soon". When asked directly about Tänak, he laughs and says that he's been "following the discussion in media" but that there are "many options in the driver market". Tommi also confirms that three cars is the format for TGR in 2018.

And when asked to give grades for his current driver line-up, he praises JML and Lappi, but says that "few mistakes" lower the grade for Hänninen.

So, in a nutshell, no surprises expected when the official announcement comes: Tänak, JML and Lappi will form the trio of drivers and Kaj Lindström will fill vacancy left by Jarmo Lehtinen.

[RS]

You could argue (and many people have) that Juho was lucky to even be in the drive this year. I'm really glad he did get the chance, but in the end he showed us exactly what we already knew. He can be fast everywhere but is nowhere near consistent enough across a season. I hope he can stick around and do some test/R5 work - maybe a car for Finland who knows.

Bit harsh given that this was his first full season.

If Malcolm loses Ogier and Tanak he should think about giving Juho a go.

[AnttiL]

https://www.mtv.fi/sport/ralli/uutin...992#gs.zHfIDkU

In this 9-minute interview Tommi says that there's "going to be changes in the team" for 2018 and everything (including the new sporting director) will be announced "soon". When asked directly about Tänak, he laughs and says that he's been "following the discussion in media" but that there are "many options in the driver market". Tommi also confirms that three cars is the format for TGR in 2018.

And when asked to give grades for his current driver line-up, he praises JML and Lappi, but says that "few mistakes" lower the grade for Hänninen.

So, in a nutshell, no surprises expected when the official announcement comes: Tänak, JML and Lappi will form the trio of drivers and Kaj Lindström will fill vacancy left by Jarmo Lehtinen.

Tommi also says twice about how great Teemu Suninen is.

[Tarmop]

Bit harsh given that this was his first full season.

If Malcolm loses Ogier and Tanak he should think about giving Juho a go.

If this is the case, then he will go back to getting paid for renting cars.

[ESTR]

M-Sport is like step to bigger success with factory teams. Look guys who develop their skills there. Except this year with Ogier and Tanak, they clearly go for it and if they both gone it will probably be back the leaderboard again for some years. I think if Ford will not back his programme he will still be well shown and sell a lot of their prepared cars to customers worldwide so he could compete in WRC.

[mknight]

Bit harsh given that this was his first full season.

If Malcolm loses Ogier and Tanak he should think about giving Juho a go.

I like Hanninen as a person.

But results-wise his problem always was that he crashes under pressure, this season didn't prove much otherwise. Yes this was his first full season in WRC but in IRC it was quite often the same problem.

[racerx1979]

Yes, Toyota would take Suninen if Tanak stays at Ford. The last I heard they were looking at both Sunien and Tanak.

Tommi is certainly a bit harsh especially considering Juho has had a great 2nd half of the season. Hope he goes all out in GB.

[wrc2017]

do you remember ogier in his first full season?
do you remember tanak for a few seasons
do you remeber neville crashing..
of course you member meeke crashing
you remember lavata crashing all the time
you know what the common denominator is.. they can all win rallys.

otberg, sordo etc very rarely crash... but they are unlikley to win rallys.

you would have a team full of nearly men.

I like Hanninen as a person.

But results-wise his problem always was that he crashes under pressure, this season didn't prove much otherwise. Yes this was his first full season in WRC but in IRC it was quite often the same problem.

[Munkvy]

do you remember ogier in his first full season?
do you remember tanak for a few seasons
do you remeber neville crashing..
of course you member meeke crashing
you remember lavata crashing all the time
you know what the common denominator is.. they can all win rallys.

otberg, sordo etc very rarely crash... but they are unlikley to win rallys.

you would have a team full of nearly men.

None of those guys won while crashing in their first season in the WRC... So when you look at their early WRC careers, you can't say "ohh they can all win rallys" we shall keep them round because they are winners, they simply weren't at the time...

- JML didn't win anything in his first full year 2007 with Stobart, and had a part year with them the year before too.
- Neuville didn't win anything with his first year in Citroen, or his second in Ford, it wasn't till his third year while at Hyundai that he finally won.
- Meeke, didn't win anything with Mini, or in his first year at Citroen, it wasn't till the second year
- Even Ogier didn't win anything in his first full season with Citroen
- Tanak - it took till his 4th full year in a WRC car before he won anything

So you are making things up I am afraid. It's normal to crash and have ups and downs in your first full year. The sad reality is due to his age and the fact that Hanninen has popped in and out of the WRC several times, people expect him to be either winning in his first full year, or they say he doesn't deserve a seat.

Given he has never had a full season before and that in 2016 he didn't even compete in the WRC at all, he had a much harder, perhaps impossible situation to overcome. Unfortunately for him, even though he was IRC, ERC and SWRC champion, he left it too late to get into the WRC and get to know the roads and cars etc and I think he will always be at a significant disadvantage and it's a bit late for him. Which is a waste really as if he left IRC and got even a part time drive in WRC who knows what could have been?