2007 championship, Loeb or Gronholm?

[Finni]

based on the fact that its is an evolution step ahead and also the performance of the drivers who are inferior yet they manage to be close to Loeb.....

Haha.. Ford is evolution and Citroen is not which should mean that Ford is faster. According to this halting logic Subaru should have been always fastest as they had new evolution version every year.. And Latvala by the way is not driving -07 evolution, there is no much difference between those versions.

Yers, Hirvonen could have been challenge to Loeb in this rally - especially when Seb had to play safe due to championship situation. You have to remember that Hirvonen has been good challenge also to Grönholm in few rallies. There is absolutely no reason why Hirvonen couldn't perform equally in the C4.

As to Latvala, I think that he would have hard times with Sordo if not retired. Latvala by the way has been stunningly fast with wrc-car already few years and his current performance level (2-3 min from the top) is not surprising anyone who has watched his career.

[N.O.T]

Haha.. Ford is evolution and Citroen is not which should mean that Ford is faster. According to this halting logic Subaru should have been always fastest as they had new evolution version every year.. And Latvala by the way is not driving -07 evolution, there is no much difference between those versions.

Yers, Hirvonen could have been challenge to Loeb in this rally - especially when Seb had to play safe due to championship situation. You have to remember that Hirvonen has been good challenge also to Grönholm in few rallies. There is absolutely no reason why Hirvonen couldn't perform equally in the C4.

As to Latvala, I think that he would have hard times with Sordo if not retired. Latvala by the way has been stunningly fast with wrc-car already few years and his current performance level (2-3 min from the top) is not surprising anyone who has watched his career.

Well Ford had a good car to begin with so the evolution is a step ahead.....Subaru needs a revolution to get into the game now not a simple evolution. The C4 is unchanged for a year now.

I was not refering to latvala but the main 2 ford kids Gronholm and Hirvonen...as drivers they need to learn a bit more to be close to Loeb as far as driving goes...Gronholm is too old unfortunately to do that and he decided to ran away (maybe with a title) from the challenge next year.....Hirvonen i think can and will evolve...I think next year he could steal 2-3 rallies from Loeb.

thats my opinion and you know what they say about them....

[jens]

Citroen needs a 1-2 from Ireland, then we would have a great finale.

Something has been wrong with Loeb this year. He has made uncharacteristically many mistakes...

[N.O.T]

hmmmm.....this year it reminds me the first year Loeb had with xsara WRC he didn't avoid mistakes back then either (Germany and Sweden are the ones i can remember)...maybe its a process of getting used to the car at the limit....time will tell.

[Finni]

Well Ford had a good car to begin with so the evolution is a step ahead.....Subaru needs a revolution to get into the game now not a simple evolution. The C4 is unchanged for a year now.

I was not refering to latvala but the main 2 ford kids Gronholm and Hirvonen...as drivers they need to learn a bit more to be close to Loeb as far as driving goes...Gronholm is too old unfortunately to do that and he decided to ran away (maybe with a title) from the challenge next year.....Hirvonen i think can and will evolve...I think next year he could steal 2-3 rallies from Loeb.

thats my opinion and you know what they say about them....

As far as I know C4 will not be developed in terms of evolution versions as was not Xsara also. That obviously doesn't mean that developement is stopped? Everyone involved in rallying knows that your whole "Ford has evolution" argument is irrelevant. It's not better than saying "C4 is developed longer and its more new, so it must be better".

Your view on Hirvonen is probably underrating. In your circular thinking being few times as fast as Grönholm means that one cannot be as fast as Loeb in any rally. I think that's the presupposition that most forumers don't share.

[koko0703]

I guess the championship now depends as much on 2nd drivers as Macus and Loeb themselves. Can Sordo finish in front of Macus in Ireland??? Can Hirvonen stay in front of Loeb in GB??? From that perspective, I think there's a bigger posibility for Hirvonen giving Macus bigger help than Sordo to Loeb.

[Brother John]

Loeb has already won lately Cork International Rally and anyway tarmac is his reign ... I can't see how Bosse can win there ^^

That was a test drive and now other WRC drivers in the run, exept Mikko. mokin:

[A.F.F.]

Marcus is hardly a "Ford kid".

[White Sauron]

Gronholm? Develop? What you're talking about, NOT? He's one of the two most successful drivers ever. If he has to develop, than what should Solberg and others do??

[Glee]

Is the championship Loeb's, or shall we wait for the fat lady who sings?