Petter and Subaru?

[Mickey T]

I think if Atkinson pushed him a bit harder it would help...

if atkinson pushed him any harder, there would be even more tears...

petter's car was not rear wheel drive. i saw the car on the stage he retired after. it was spinning up the front wheels on the corner exit.

i don't doubt it was difficult to drive, but chris has had the same issues in previous rallies and kept going. similar issues have caused a few of the crashes you guys have hammered him over, but he kept going anyway, knowing that was the risk.

chris had petter's measure all weekend in finland.

it was his coming of age.

i really doubt petter wants him any faster...

[COD]

The car sure looked like it behaved strangely. It sort of reminded me of one Didier Auriol in Finland years back in a Corolla.

[MYCROFT4]

Seen Petter on a very high speed section of "Leustu" and the handling looked terrible in comparison to Chris's one.

[Camelopard]

if atkinson pushed him any harder, there would be even more tears...

petter's car was not rear wheel drive. i saw the car on the stage he retired after. it was spinning up the front wheels on the corner exit.

i don't doubt it was difficult to drive, but chris has had the same issues in previous rallies and kept going. similar issues have caused a few of the crashes you guys have hammered him over, but he kept going anyway, knowing that was the risk.

chris had petter's measure all weekend in finland.

it was his coming of age.

i really doubt petter wants him any faster...

Exactly, although I may be biased, I can't help that feel Atko has it all over Petter, this talk of Petter going back to Ford, I can't help but feel they would be much better off giving Chris a drive, at least he is prepared to give it a go when the chips are down......
Petter was a class act when things were going his way, now I'm not so sure.
So much criticism of Chris on this forum, IMO he has done an exceptional job in a sh*t of a car........

[Timole]

I think it´s really hard for Petter at this time, because he wants to perform, but the car is not good enough. I remember as it was the same with Marcus and Peugeot and we all know what happened then...
If Subaru doesn´t suit Petter he should be looking for a new Team and then we can see how will he do with other car.
Of course it would have been nice of him at least to try and finish in finland, as it shows true sportsman!

[Finni]

if atkinson pushed him any harder, there would be even more tears...

petter's car was not rear wheel drive. i saw the car on the stage he retired after. it was spinning up the front wheels on the corner exit.

i don't doubt it was difficult to drive, but chris has had the same issues in previous rallies and kept going. similar issues have caused a few of the crashes you guys have hammered him over, but he kept going anyway, knowing that was the risk.

How do you know that previously Chris has had exactly the same problem(s)?

Actually looking at times we can see that Petter had three kind of paces: (1) when everything worked in the car he was well on Seb's pace (stages 3-6). (2) He had serious handling problems but was able to go some speed losing 1 sec per/km. (3) His car was complitely undriveable, losing group N cars (Ouninpohja I for instance). There was no point to continue as the driving looked dangerous and he was loosing ten seconds per/km.

I don't see that Petter cried due to Chris' pace. When his car was ok he was able to respond it. In most of rallies Petter has been more ahead of Chris than for instance Grönholm has been ahead of Hirvonen. Sometimes, on the other hand Chris has gone extremely well. This kind of inconsistency between drivers is related to Subaru's car.

[Finni]

By the way, Atkinson's performance in Ouninpohja 1 was superb. Almost the same time with Hirvonen and faster than Loeb. In my place Hirvonen and Atko were most impressive drivers in that run and I already guessed that Chris will have better stage time than Seb. It would have been nice to how Petter would have done Ouninpohja with healthy car. Possibly not better than Atko - otherwise he would have been on Grönholm's pace.

[Mickey T]

How do you know that previously Chris has had exactly the same problem(s)?

i was there and (very) senior SWRT personnel told me. even in finland, chris did not have a trouble-free event.

Actually looking at times we can see that Petter had three kind of paces: (1) when everything worked in the car he was well on Seb's pace (stages 3-6). (2) He had serious handling problems but was able to go some speed losing 1 sec per/km. (3) His car was complitely undriveable, losing group N cars (Ouninpohja I for instance). There was no point to continue as the driving looked dangerous and he was loosing ten seconds per/km.
.

he was losing three seconds a kilometre when it was at its worst, not ten. you're right, it might as well hav been 10, but it was three.

chris was on seb's pace as well. a spin early on friday cost him 12 seconds (i've timed it on the in-car), then he had the engine stall at a hairpin after service, on one of the stages where petter beat him. were it not for the stall and the spin, he' ahve been within five or six seconds of loeb at day's end.

I don't see that Petter cried due to Chris' pace. When his car was ok he was able to respond it. In most of rallies Petter has been more ahead of Chris than for instance Grönholm has been ahead of Hirvonen. Sometimes, on the other hand Chris has gone extremely well. This kind of inconsistency between drivers is related to Subaru's car.

i didn't suggest petter cried because of chris's pace. jsut that if chris had been any quicker, he'd have had even more reason to cry.

If you analyse the per km times between petter and chris, then compare them to the citroen and ford number twos (when the cars are healthy), chris is easily the closest to his number one. by some margin.

[Buzz Lightyear]

The time has comes when no2 are no more..

mikko has already outpaced marcus on norway, much to his annoyance.

sordo pushed seb very hard on germany last year, and I actually think he is worried about danny's pace, but knows that managment will not allow him to beat seb

while petter is flipped out with diff maps and steering racks woes, chris is just getting on with it. finland was a water shed where he regualry outpaced petter. monte carlo this year chris set some fastest times.. I could see him also out pacing petter in germany.

[milly]

There is a fundamental problem with the car for the last three years.

First of all Pirelli was blamed, but now the problems are still there on BF Goodrich tyres.

Within Prodrive, the engineers are arguing with each other and spend more time trying to pass the blame than they do on getting the car right. They've changed engineers three or four times now.

Petter has been able to drive around the problem for much of the time; Chris hasn't.

Initially the problem was the chassis - there was flexing in the shell causing suspension problems and changing the handling from corner to corner, as each event went on.

This is why the car often started well in rallies, then got worse and worse, or the drivers were caught out and crashed.

In Finland, Petter had a central diff problem but nobody accepts the blame. Petter was frustrated - DR was in Finland saying that it was Petter's fault.

Petter is fed up, but he has nowhere else to go. Ford has no space for him, Citroen has no space. Petter wants a good salary and to win rallies - Suzuki can't do that for him.

He can only stay where he is, get a good salary and cry with frustration and having such a bad car and team.