I agree, they saved the WRC 2023! I am happy for Malcolm, M-sport, Estonians and rally society - we all hoped for this! Good job, M-Sport!!!! (I just hope this is not happening on expense of salary cut of M-Sport employees... :) )
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I agree, they saved the WRC 2023! I am happy for Malcolm, M-sport, Estonians and rally society - we all hoped for this! Good job, M-Sport!!!! (I just hope this is not happening on expense of salary cut of M-Sport employees... :) )
we all owe alot to Malcolm, he has done alot to rallying.
I just remembered after Loeb won Monte there was some picture or video of Ott going to congratulate Malcolm. Obviously didn't mean anything then but seems his heart was pulling to MSport :)
not much to wait till the other guys will drive puma if they get loeb more than 4 round that would be fantastic
3h later and DirtFish only posted FOUR articles on that. Lets see if they post six more before 24h
thank you! I tried to find it but failed :)Quote:
Originally Posted by TypeR
Obviously this is the best news possible with regards to Tanak.
But this sentence made me laugh:
"Tänak told DirtFish: “I wanted to be in a place where I have the full focus on doing everything in the team’s power or in our power to be able to fight for the championship. And that was definitely one reason why I was considering moving to M-Sport – and my target is obviously the drivers’ championship."
This definitely doesn't sound like MSport last 4 years. But hopefully they will try now. (So no such things as dropping pre-event testing).
The one that stood out for me was “And there is also Ford behind who is very interested to still prove that they are capable of doing well in rallying, so I would say together with Ford and M-Sport I see there is a chance to build something great again together.” Does this mean there is bigger support from Ford?
when I saw ''Ott Tanak The Movie'', there was one scene where Malcolm and Rich told Ott that he is in wrong colors. He replied to them, that if he is ever going to trive fot them (M-Sport), that he (Ott) wants a privat jet to fly to rallyes, because Toyota has one for him.
So, does he get a jet or not? :beer:
Excellent news for the rally world ... even if I’m not sure it’s the best choice for Tanak himself. But well, on what he has shown last year and knowing Ogier succeeded in winning the title in 2018 in the second year of the regulation, it’s not an impossible dream.
And it gives some hype to the 2023 championship.
Losing Tanak would have reduced the possibilities and Clearly having a big fish in M-Sport team give a 3-way very interesting fight.
Let’s see now what M-Sport will have as line-up along him.
Lets just hope that M-Sport will figure out their reliability issues and wont skip PET due to the funding issues. Tanak wont tolerate it - PR success and opportunity might turn to disaster rather quickly if MSport would not hold their word of bargain.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny0405
But, one is sure - MS folks have had been in this situation before, with Ogier, they must know that they would need to rise their game.
Main question mark and the thing that can ruin the season for Tänak in M-sport is reliability in my opinion also, but i hope that him joining brings the motivation and will to deal with theese little issues that hindered Fords all season.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndersX
About PET i dont really think it was as much about money as everyone thinks, i mean course money was involved, but if you think logically why would you need to spend money with some second tier drivers to who'm it does not matter if he has 50+km before rally or not. He still will be driving 5-6-7 times at best or end it in a ditch. Loeb got to test before every rally he entered, so i doubt Tänak will be without PET's.
Also i think now that Tänak joined the team as mentioned in the Dirtfish article and some other places also, Tänak coming to the team will open the wallet more from Ford to Wilson.
It has been mentioned that Ford has started already to fall behind from Hyundai and Toyota, but people are forgetting that Hyundai and Toyota applied the engine updates before Rally Estonia i think. Ford postphoned that because there were some question marks about the fuel used next season. https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/why-m...gine-upgrades/
That means in Monte probably or Sweden they will apply the new engine update. And also with Tänak knowledge i think the chassis and aero wont stay the same in terms of upgrades. Quote from dirtfish about Tänaks words
“And there is also Ford behind who is very interested to still prove that they are capable of doing well in rallying, so I would say together with Ford and M-Sport I see there is a chance to build something great again together.”
In my opinion that means when Tänak and Wilson say something needs to be upgraded on the car, then it probably will be done and wont stay behind budget wall.
Breen did not get to test before Finland, a rally he finished 3rd at the year before. I do not rate Breen particularly high, but cleary he was MSports best shot for that rally and should have had a chance of podium.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyest
If that is not worth spending money, even after actually hiring the driver (and not just him paying) then you have to wonder what is.
My phone died on Tuesday and I had to have it returned to factory settings. I didn't get it back till this morning.... and find I missed the big news !!
I dared to dream Tanak would come back but didn't really believe it. FANTASTIC !!
It's certainly good news that he will be back in 2023. Let's hope he'll have a better time of it than he did these last couple of years.
At the same time, let's be realistic about what we can expect. He's fast, sure. The car has shown flashes of pace. However, it looks fragile even in the hands of someone like Sebastien Loeb, who certainly seems to have a lighter touch than most.
The other manufacturers have clearly taken steps forward in terms of speed and reliability, while it's hard to say if the Puma is any better now than it was this time last year. Lessons will have been learned I'm sure, but still...
I don't want to get too carried away. I'm a fan of the driver and the team, and I'd be very happy to see both of them back on top, but I don't see it being easy for them. Ott is going to have to be patient, and M-Sport are going to have to start spending some serious money. Let's hope the cash they saved in 2022 will be used to good effect in 2023.
I don’t believe Tanak would have signed had he not been assured that the basics (PET, development budget, knowledge of the extent of Fords involvement etc) been assured. For sure he is not a guy to go there because he likes Malcolm Wilson, he is going there because they have assured him they have the funds and material to do a proper job.
It remains to be seen if it actually comes together, but this isn’t some old pals act.
It's going to be fascinating whatever happens and is exactly what we fans and the WRC needed... a 3-way fight for the top guys in different cars.
I'm looking forward to hearing the full details of Tanak's deal and how it all came about and will be funded. It's clearly a big financial outlay and I really hope it pays off for whoever's laid out the salary.
Could it be that Wilson managed to pull a deal with papa Greensmith?
As Tanak isn't RB guy, he can run with another livery(maybe same as Gus)?
Anyway Gus has a really good chance to benefit from Tanak being his teammate for full season(like Tanak and Evans gained experience from Ogier).
To me it seems Gus knows how to be a professional rally driver, but he just lacks the talent of driving fast. Tänak's situation was the opposite, he had speed but had to learn important details of working and refining his driving style from Ogier.Quote:
Originally Posted by TypeR
Furthermore, Gus was in the team already in 2017 with Ogier, Tänak and Evans. If he needed those guys to "watch and learn", he could have already done it (also with Ogier 2018 and Evans 2018-2019)
Well in 2017-2019 he drove R5(with only 3 wrc starts in 19')..
good news for m-sport, but unless ford suddenly decides to put some real money behind the project, i fear it will go even worse than at hyundai. At toyota, he could have been a threat to rovanpera, but in a ford i doubt he will be even close to him.
Gerard Quinn
@WRCgerardquinn
·
7 Dec
Tänak returns to M-Sport next year -
Positive news indeed for 2023 #WRC. A big thanks to #Ford for funding and their employees whose jobs have been or will be sacrificed to fund the multi-million $'s cost.
Seems like a bad take from someone who should know better.Quote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
Gerard obviously has beef with Ford and I trust some of it will be justified however there eventually comes a time to walk away and think he may have reached that point..
Never did know where the sarcasm was or who it was aimed at with Gerard.Quote:
Originally Posted by seb_sh
Wow this is a surprise as GQ has always actually praised Ford for the funding they do put in (for the car).Quote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
He seems to think that MW and driver sponsors should be responsible for paying any salarìes, not Ford even though they benefit from having a top driver.
A strange one.
This guy doesn't seem bright enough to have a straight thought....Quote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
https://youtu.be/K9rLqjzPhLY
Tänak testing at Greystoke and Dovenby. Look at the hilariously large silencer when testing at Dovenby! The place must be subject to some fairly strict noise regulations despite it being a private facility due to the local residents
strange as he was, even lately, very positive about Ford.Quote:
Originally Posted by rallyfiend
Yes, it was needed to help get the planning permission through. I think you can look up the full details on Allerdale council planning site.Quote:
Originally Posted by HKSjbg
Well Ford have made thousands of redundancies recently to reduce costs. Do you not have any empathy with these people that could have lost everything, only to find out that Ford can now spunk (£20m?) for a rally driver.Quote:
Originally Posted by rallyfiend
Tanak isn't making anywhere close to £20m. Probably getting rid of Breen and Fourmaux 's repair bills (plus the former's contract) saved enough for M-Sport to line up a decent offer for Ott.
ok, noone has seen bank statements of transfers between Ford-MSport... and what ford does in research like wind tunnels, suspension etc... just most fans thinks that MSport runs only on Mr Wilson business money only - but Ford involvement is much bigger then everyone thinks... and I hope MSport would get more wins in 2023 :)Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
c'mon. u really think tanak drive for romance? it's clearly written ford is funding the wage.Quote:
Originally Posted by macebig
As ever, it seems the truth is somewhere between the two extremes.
M-Sport must be getting some funding to support their 2023 driver wage bill. Something must have changed from this year, otherwise they'd have been doing it already.
And those slating this expenditure... what do they want M-Sport to do? Quit the WRC? Or have Ford pull out of motorsport completely? That will cost people their jobs too. I would have expected Mr Quinn to know better than to make comments like that.
The world is basically f*cked, so should we all just give up? No. We carry on, doing the best we can.
That's not how corporate budgets work.Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
but sadly is how reality works.Quote:
Originally Posted by seb_sh
If you prefer they could spend the money sponsoring a football team, in which case it's the wrong forum.Quote:
Originally Posted by wyler