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Dirtfish
'Although the top two places in the drivers’ championship were occupied by Toyota drivers, Hyundai was able to take the manufacturers’ honors with 11 podiums from five different drivers across this season’s seven rallies.'
So the extra drivers paid off for Hyundai.
Have any other Manu hired so many to win a title ?
Not in modern times. It used to normal back in the days for teams like Lancia.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Mr Adamo has gamed the rules extremely well, and earned his manufacturer title.
And it's not like Rovanpera did badly or anything. Fifth in the drivers' championship, 7 points behind the Neuville in the big 4, almost two thirds as many points as Ogier who won it. Just... Hyundai played their cards right.
Still, it's not obvious that Toyota should change. You would expect Rovanpera to improve in his second year.
Unless Neuville is on the table...
Indeed, if you look at the driver nominations of Hyundai in hindsight they smartly used road position and driver-rally affinity. They could do it because their only real competition was Toyota which had a more traditional lineup; essentially whenever either Ogier or Evans hit trouble Hyundai would benefit. Additionally the road order on some rallies gave Hyundai a boost. Considering it was a very tight championship it was enough to make the difference.
Audi 1984 had Mikkola, Blomqvist, Rohrl and MoutonQuote:
Originally Posted by masa90
Lancia 1987 with Kankkunen, Alen and Biasion
Actually Peugeot 2002-2003 is quite similar to what Hyundai has now with Burns, Grönholm, Panizzi and Rovanperä. Two all-around experts, and a tarmac guy rotating with a gravel guy.
it difficult to make a judgement based on points, because not many have been awarded this year. ogier has won today with 122 point, tanak had 263 last year. had the year been longer, the differences would have been greater.Quote:
Originally Posted by Morte66
I agree Rovanpera wasn't bad, maybe a bit better than expected. Though definitely not as good as predicted by many people after Sweden.Quote:
Originally Posted by Morte66
A tiny nitpick is that off course Rovanpera ended 5th... cause he was only competing with Lappi and Suninen for that as Hyundai's part time drivers couldn't get all the points in few starts. (if you sum Sordo, Breen and Loeb you get 91 vs Rovanpera at 80, they got road position advantages though)
Only different option for Toyota next year is to change their mind on rotating drivers and get some drivers for the rallies that Rovanpera is still not so good at (slow gravel, maybe tarmac). But doing that is actually quite big change in mindset so I don't expect it.
Hyundai paid the money for a roster of drivers and maybe 'bought' the Manus title.
Seems odd that Toyota GR had the top two in the Championship but didnt win the Manu's.
they didnt win the manu title but they made huge step with the reliability of the car.
night and day compared to previous seasons, especially in Mexico and Turkey where they had a lot of problems previous years.
This year the manu's title it is a bit question of luck also. It was so equal. 5 points! A lot of times you will loose more points with having one puncture. No point for black'n'white dramatize here like Hyundai did it well and Toyota did not.