Silly Season 2019

Breen was in the wrong team. He couldn't progress as much as the finn.

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Originally Posted by AMSS

There is actually some fact to this, without Tänak they would not have a single win this year and Lappi and Latvala combined would not have as many fastest stage times as Neuville and Ogier have on their own, I`m not saying the car is bad, it`s definitely not, but I wouldn`t say it`s by far the best either, the main difference seems to be Tänak and this is something he started to show last year in M-sport as well..

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Wrong. Without Tanak, latvala would've won in Turkey.

Wrong again. WITH Tanak we have 3 way battle (it's hard for him but it's still possible). Hope M-Sport find another driver that challenge next year for that also and that it will be even closer fights...

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Originally Posted by er88

Struggle to understand what Citroen are all about.

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I think hiring a 5-time champ together with a proven rally winner is quite understandable move. And getting Ogier onboard has probably automatically meant that the line-up will be two cars only. And securing the services of Ogier has also secured the future of the team. So all in all Citroen did pretty well this silly season.

Can't help but think M-Sport are now in a downward spiral towards little car development and purely pay drivers, once again. A shame. Reminds me of a few years back, 2011 and 2012 winning rallies with some Ford backing and a promising new car (akin to '17 and '18, although not as much Ford $$$), 2013 bringing some promising talent to podiums (could be Breen and Paddon in '19), '14, '15, '16 not much to write home about.

Well Msport is first and foremost a business, not a money-sink PR venture like Toyota or Hyundai.

That said they did "paydrivers and no development" also in 2005 and then the 2006 car was very good. Lately you could also say the same about 2016 before 2017.

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Originally Posted by Allez Andruet

I think hiring a 5-time champ together with a proven rally winner is quite understandable move. And getting Ogier onboard has probably automatically meant that the line-up will be two cars only. And securing the services of Ogier has also secured the future of the team. So all in all Citroen did pretty well this silly season.

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That's all well and good and I'm glad about that, it's a positive step but it's still not a full team yet. They've not really had that since they returned to the sport. Really hope they can run a 3rd car regularly even if it is just Ostberg bringing budget.

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Originally Posted by tomhlord

Can't help but think M-Sport are now in a downward spiral towards little car development and purely pay drivers, once again. A shame. Reminds me of a few years back, 2011 and 2012 winning rallies with some Ford backing and a promising new car (akin to '17 and '18, although not as much Ford $$$), 2013 bringing some promising talent to podiums (could be Breen and Paddon in '19), '14, '15, '16 not much to write home about.

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Hard to disagree with this; I can't understand why Ford won't come in with full backing, or why M-Sport have proved incapable of finding a title sponsor. Maybe they don't have a title sponsor because they don't have full manufacturer backing, or maybe they don't have full manufacturer backing because they don't have a title sponsor......

It's a quite a gamble by Toyota. They have effectively swapped 4th in the WDC Lappi for a Citroen driver... and chose the old, fast but crash-prone Meeke over the young solid-scoring Breen.

Breen as a like-for-like swap for Lappi would've been the obvious move. And Meeke to M-Sport would've brought them a potential winner.

Makinen must have his reasons so we'll have to see what he says and then how it turns out.

M-Sport now how very limited options of who is available and who they could even want, so as to make continuing really worthwhile.

Meeke to M-Sport could`ve been too much too handle, financially.