Hello from Antony Warmbold

By coincidence, Warmbold was on Dutch television last week in which the clash with Duval in New Zeeland was compared with the one of Panizzi in the Safari rally and Hirvonen and Loeb in Portugal. I realized last week I didn't hear or see anything from him in years. Most of the time WRC drivers don't disappear from tv and you hear about them in local rally's or so. Funny that one week later you pop up with the blog.

Hello Antony, thank you very much for your blogg, its great, almost like the Wikileaks of WRC!! please keep the posts comming and lets see if some other drivers speak out just like you, or maybe M-sport give an official response (just like the USA did with wikileaks!).

Probably you dont remember but I talked to you on rally mexico in 2004, just before a stage (I think it was stage 3 or 4 after you took a pee break...), not sure what I told you but basically just wishing good luck, I have a few pics from that year and also from 2005 in case you would like to the see them.

And finally just a couple of questions, did other privateers had the same frustrations as you? or the same problems perhaps? did you ever thought or talked about moving to an other team?

thanks

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Originally Posted by Jake Stephens

Hi Antony, I've been a long time follower of WRC for years but I have to say, I find your blog a great read. Well written and very informative. I know you were asked this earlier but can you tell us if you ever made contact with Prodrive and if so, what made you go for the Ford? Anyway, hopefully you had enjoyment through the years in the WRC community, it sounds like you learnt a lot about the business that you can apply to your work now :) Best of luck with the blog.

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I have posted an answer that in the blog....

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

Hello Antony, thank you very much for your blogg, its great, almost like the Wikileaks of WRC!! please keep the posts comming and lets see if some other drivers speak out just like you, or maybe M-sport give an official response (just like the USA did with wikileaks!).

Probably you dont remember but I talked to you on rally mexico in 2004, just before a stage (I think it was stage 3 or 4 after you took a pee break...), not sure what I told you but basically just wishing good luck, I have a few pics from that year and also from 2005 in case you would like to the see them.

And finally just a couple of questions, did other privateers had the same frustrations as you? or the same problems perhaps? did you ever thought or talked about moving to an other team?

thanks

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That would be nice, I will pm you

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Originally Posted by NiekJ

By coincidence, Warmbold was on Dutch television last week in which the clash with Duval in New Zeeland was compared with the one of Panizzi in the Safari rally and Hirvonen and Loeb in Portugal. I realized last week I didn't hear or see anything from him in years. Most of the time WRC drivers don't disappear from tv and you hear about them in local rally's or so. Funny that one week later you pop up with the blog.

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Noted
I feel like I need to give my opinion of the whole dust thing because many people are talking about that.

Very nice last three blog posts.

why you kept coming back at ford ??? less expensive ?? did the team had any positives ??? also you were quite young at the time so its ok not to have full understanding of how things work......but your dad had all the experience in the world...why didn't he protect you ??

And again you focus too much on the car....you feel that its the only reason of your failure ?

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Originally Posted by Antony Warmbold

I have posted an answer that in the blog....

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Cool....

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

almost like the Wikileaks of WRC!!

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I like that :)

Anyway, I believe a world rally championship without the concept of "works car" would be far more interesting.

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Originally Posted by N.O.T

why you kept coming back at ford ??? less expensive ?? did the team had any positives ??? also you were quite young at the time so its ok not to have full understanding of how things work......but your dad had all the experience in the world...why didn't he protect you ??

And again you focus too much on the car....you feel that its the only reason of your failure ?

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Why so much use of the word 'failure'? Sure he didn't become a works driver, but he put in a better effort than most have.

And it's understandable that if the car's bad, the times would be bad, particularly given the examples he gives - lack of top speed, bad reliability, bad handling. What's he supposed to do, get out and push to make it go faster?

I find it a fascinating read, because there's so little good coverage about the WRC, and so little understanding how the teams work. We know they manipulate the rules to their own advantage and to try and keep out other teams, and now we have a privateer narrating how they keep the works drivers on top. Makes you wonder if we're a bit harsh in our treatment of other rookies. I'd love it if Becs Williams were to ask Malcolm Wilson after the next time a part breaks on a privateer's car, "was that a second hand part because he's only a privateer?"

But WRR will never truly grill a team boss.