If he changed his name to Meekanin and lived in Jyvaskyla for a while.. Tomi might actually grow to like him.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am evil Homer
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If he changed his name to Meekanin and lived in Jyvaskyla for a while.. Tomi might actually grow to like him.Quote:
Originally Posted by I am evil Homer
I think his biggest problem is that he drives in the wrong series, nobody who is in charge of signing drivers for WRC are not interested in irc, or have they been around there lately?Quote:
Originally Posted by I am evil Homer
Also I dont think he would make any difference, average guy.
If there was actually anyone in WRC with any paid seats going spare then they certainly ought to be looking at IRC ahead of pWRC or jWRC, don't you think?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
Exactly. There are more paid drives in IRC than WRC, and your not playing second fiddle to WRC as "also rans", but getting maxiumum exposure on Eurosport. Using Tomi's "driver measuring device", Hanninen and Kopecky are below average.Quote:
Originally Posted by RS
I think everyone is free to drive where ever they want to, just replied on a post related to why Meeke dont get offers for a WRC seat, if he is happy there and feel that he is on the top of his carreer, its fine by me.Quote:
Originally Posted by RS
That might help, if he would be Finnish and would have talent, Finnish people works hard to get talented drivers further in their carreer, very seldom you see any Finn crying on a public forum about wasted talents, or how wrong it is that some driver dont get a seat, while the others are crying the Finns pick up the potential sponsors. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzz Lightyear
Tomi, are you saying to me the JML would be offered a seat without the money that follows him? At this particular moment in time, I very much doubt it. If Ford dropped him, where would he be? He would not dare drive a Super 2000 car, he would be thumped. Super 2000, in whatever form it takes, will be the best thing to happen WRC in a decade.
As far as i know he is not paying anything to Wilson anymore, he is a paid driver, but earlier his sponsors did, same like Sainz and many others before him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzz Lightyear
No idea what would happen if Ford would drop him, if they do then we see.
Have you thought about the possibility that Latvala payed xxxxxx EUR for his first years in Ford and if the results were above level x then he gets free place in Ford team from the date xx.xx.20xx? And if not then team has to pay something for him:-) And Wilson does not want to pay and he hopes that Latvala still improves.
Put Latvala in Super 2000 Cup, and teach him how to drive properly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
Sign Solberg for next year, and then bring him back in 2011.
Don't see much wrong with that, other than damaged pride.
A bit complicated, but you never know about contracts, how they are built.Quote:
Originally Posted by bluuford
i dont see your point, do you seriously belive that a driver with contract in WRC, voluntarely would swap to boulevard rally, nobody would be that thick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzz Lightyear
Thats exactly the way I think it would work, and for that reason, he is paying to drive for Ford.Quote:
Originally Posted by bluuford
You dont see my point?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
The two guys that are thumping your guys, have learnt how to driver S1600's, and a particular driving styling, and now have a car that is build/adapted to drive, brake and accelerate the quickest way possilbe... in a straight line. The Fin's (wheather they admit it or not) have not learn't to drive this way, and until they do, they will not beat Loeb/Sordo/Citreon combo
Super 2000 driving style is the exact same as S1600, and for that reason, he will need to learn very quickly.
In the meantime, Solberg helps Ford win the manufacturers title.
Who says it would be voluntary? Your making it sound as if Latvala is calling the shots.
Latvala has contract to drive WRC for M-Sport for next year, that i know.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzz Lightyear
Good. It's fun with spread betting, guessing what stage he is going off on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
I'm starting to lose patience with JML as well. Whereas Hirvonen has managed to improve a lot after a difficult beginning, this guy has shown no improvement whatsoever.
As for the question, who could be given the second works Ford drive, I'd personally nominate PGA - a rather overlooked driver IMO. Was faster than Garde in his first full WRC season and was going well in outdated Škoda. Who knows, he may even be championship material.
OK Petter is poor-piss driver nowadays. However on stages he has been consistently faster than Latvala in both C4 rallies. Consider also that Petter had never been driving C4 in muddy conditions before rally GB.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
Everyone who says that Petter wouldn't beat Latvala and Sordo in a works car has dropped the ball badly IMO.
Might have worked if they'd done it back in February, temporarily moving JML to Stobart (if they had, I suspect Ford could have the manufacturer's title) or even a couple months ago when Petter was deciding between the 08 spec C4/Focus. But now that Petter owns a C4, I doubt he'd be interested anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzz Lightyear
I'm a J-M L admirer so have my own bias. I also think Petter is still capable of winning WRC ralies. Prokop and Evind are ,as yet, unproven in WRC and Meeke is a winner who needs a chance, BUT J-M L is capable of winning rallies and for a guy whose first podium was less than 2 years ago (November 2007) I think that he's made an enormous amount of progress. He still needs to learn when not to exceed his limit, but the alternative approach of looking to finish without ever getting near the limit (Wilson) is never going to be competitive. Clearly he also needs to concentrate better but I believe that he can still improve. So what do 'shoestring operation' Ford do? Try to employ a much more expensive Petter. Employ a guy who is unproven in WRC or stick with a guy who has won a WRC event and is still capable of improvement if given the right equipment.
When Latvala started his factory-career 2007 he was fast and unreliable. Nowadays he is slow and and unreliable. There is no progress but regression. Next year is unlikely to be different. Nowadays he is not even fast. Hirvonen is remarkably faster and that's consistent state of affair.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mintexmemory
why are the works teams not interested in signing him then, they know for sure better.Quote:
Originally Posted by Finni
They have to pay him - big money 'cos Mr Hollywood means publicity.. Bigone..
I dont think so, now he pay him self to drive, one could think he would drive for cheap price.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barreis
If you listened to Malcolm on the teams radio scanners after JML went off at the end of that stage on Sunday, you could be tempted to say HAD a contract. MW was more than a little annoyed....... ,my guess is that MW soon cooled down and nothing will change at Ford's driver line up in 2010, except maybe more bring money gang with Block and Atko.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
Not really. If he was in a good car in the past and he was a top driver....Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
so a top driver back in a good car will equal results... and results mean good pay.
My opinion.
I agree, many times he cant screw up anymore, and its because of him Ford lost the manu title this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by MJW
These days factory teams don't care for names 'cos there's no other teams and there's only one name in public (from living drivers) that even kids on the street know: Loeb..
much possible, no idea it was only a guess, its propably nicer to whine all the time and pay for it as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by GigiGalliNo1
At the risk of being boring it's Ford's fault (and M-Sport) that they didn't win the Manufacturers Championship. Just like in F1 it was no contest for the first 5 rounds. Simply the C4 was a far superior car which caused the Ford guys, especially J-M L, to have to overdrive to keep in touch. So just who does the development work over winter? Young Matthew perhaps!Quote:
Originally Posted by Tomi
From my observations, I believe (1st hand in Ireland) that Jari-Matti was being told to go flat out to 'panic' the Citroen team. That might explain why he is cut the slack by Malcolm, hard to sack a guy when he's doing what he's told.
It's fair to criticise J-M L for the brain-fade in Poland but Catalunya was never going to be Ford event and for Rally GB the equipment he was given was sub-standard. He also won Sardinia on merit, how many events did Sordo win out of the list of Loeb failures?
Maybe, but what i mean is that the only thing expected from him now is to beat Sordo on gravel, that should not be to difficult, it mean that he should drive like he did in Finland this year, in my opinion he gets somehow carried away or gets "speed blind" in a way, he overdrive in a position where it is not necessary.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mintexmemory
He should support Mikko and take loose points for the manu title, when Mikkos job is to go for the win, now when J-M screws up it puts Mikko in between the rock and the hard place, if he goes flat out and something happens, Ford end up only with memories.
Malcolm W was pretty clear with Petter S in the early days: To finish first, you first have to finish !
Petter was brutally told to get to the finishline, and then when he could do that he could start adding speed.
Maybe he should have followed the same concept with JML. He is one of the few with potential to beat Loeb, but he needs to get smarter in his tactics. Maybe he need a mentor to plan the rallies, and coach him on all rallies, to keep him focused - and not get carried away !
If Solberg was in a works tream he would be winning again and therethore a much better choce for Ford than the showoff JML!
some belived the same when mcrae vent to citroen.Quote:
Originally Posted by Langdale Forest
But McRea was a world champion,. Latvala is just a showoff.
When J-M came to England, and Pentti started coaching him, he asked once if I know some co-driver for J-M, I suggested that Jouhki should ask Jakke Honkanen if he is interested, I dont know if they did, but anyway they did choose a Brittish guy. The basic idea was that the co-driver would be experienced and while co-drive, also at the same look that the driver dont screw up too much, in a same way Harjanne did for Tommi earlier, that was a good method, and i belive it still is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sulland
Petter winning? JML is a showoff?Quote:
Originally Posted by Langdale Forest
Heheh, yeah, very amusing stuff you got there. :rolleyes:
All you Petter fans keep on talking... The guy has lost "it". He had a proper C4 in Wales, which is one of his favourite rallies, and he can't even make a one stage win. It's difficult to accept but it's the truth. Or almost the truth.
I've also made an empirical observation that Petter has the most passionate fans. Therefore it's really, I mean really, difficult to discuss with them because for them Petter is a some sort of a godlike figure.
I'm a passionate JML fan, but hell, I don't treat him as a God. JML had a really bad season this year and he can't blame anyone else than himself. The amount of stupid mistakes was almost unbearable. But I still have faith in him. He's got the speed. Now it's time to get the consistency level up. He's a future champion, no question about it. Petter then again... He's a former champion.
Pretty much for the first time in my life: +1.Quote:
Originally Posted by Juha_Koo
Except I wouldn't want to downplay Petter just because he have passionate fans and is perhaps already on the down curve in his career. He's move to start PSWRT shows respectable dedication to the sport and he still have good pace. Can he still win an event? Oh well ... let's not get started again.
Petter is hardly past it. In his first gravel rally in a C4 he did pretty well.
Also remember he was the last world champion other than loeb. With more practice in that car he will be winning rallys again
I disagree... I consider myself a Petter fan but I don't think that biases my opinion of him. Personally I thought his performance in Wales was pretty good- it was his first gravel rally in the C4 and he was setting approximately the same times as Dani all weekend (with the exception of SS7, where Dani beat him by 20seconds). With proper wipers on that stage, I think 3rd place could've gone either way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Juha_Koo
Now I'm not saying Petter is as quick as Seb/Mikko or that he'll win rallies through speed next year (it may be possible, there is not enough evidence either way to draw a solid conclusion). But as Dani has shown, you dont have to be a winner to be a better second driver than JML.
Someday, JML might get more consistent, and then he'll be great. But until then, I think Ford's factory team would be better off with someone who's been proven he can at least keep the car on the road and end up with a solid haul of points (3rd/4th). It just happens that Petter was the only available driver who could do that- Henning is too slow to match Dani or Ogier, and there was no way Ford could have poached those guys from Citroen. There was Chris, of course, but he is also a bit of an unknown.