2022 WRC News & Rumours

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Originally Posted by flat_right

So total BS from that journalist.

What about Tänak sharing the 4th car with Ogier? Has more time family and a great car. Win win situation for him.

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Everything is BS from him. I don’t even get how he still works, the guy is such a embarrassment

Yesterday after the rally he said confidently that Ott is staying and then told that there is a big chance that Neuville will leave instead and go to Msport cause Wilson officers him a championship winning car.

He also told that Mikkelsen forgot to turn off the intercom with the team And was caught on the liaison talking about how many rallies and what contact would he get if Tänak leaves and the whole Škoda team heard this.

After this sentence the other guys on podcast asked him “wait, on which rally this happened?” And Martinson answered: ”here in Spain” and the guys said to him, “wait, what, Mikkelsen wasn’t in Spain” and then he basically couldn’t answer and in the end said it must have happened in New Zealand then, Mikkelsen also didn’t participate there as we know. What a joke

This is just one example how bad this guy is and I totally get it why Ott doesn’t like him one bit

Pure speculation, but ... if Tänak goes to M-Sport and Loeb does some extra rallies, they have driver with 1 title + "visitor driver" with 9 titles.

Toyota have pretty much the same, Rovanperä with one title and visitor Ogier with 8 titles.

... and Hyundai sending Solberg away with announcement, that they want more experienced lineup.

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

Everything is BS from him. I don’t even get how he still works, the guy is such a embarrassment

Yesterday after the rally he said confidently that Ott is staying and then told that there is a big chance that Neuville will leave instead and go to Msport cause Wilson officers him a championship winning car.

He also told that Mikkelsen forgot to turn off the intercom with the team And was caught on the liaison talking about how many rallies and what contact would he get if Tänak leaves and the whole Škoda team heard this.

After this sentence the other guys on podcast asked him “wait, on which rally this happened?” And Martinson answered: ”here in Spain” and the guys said to him, “wait, what, Mikkelsen wasn’t in Spain” and then he basically couldn’t answer and in the end said it must have happened in New Zealand then, Mikkelsen also didn’t participate there as we know. What a joke

This is just one example how bad this guy is and I totally get it why Ott doesn’t like him one bit

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The guy is just a fool. Sometimes I wonder how much acid he does on a daily basis :D

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Well my biggest fear is we get Rovanpera, Tanak and Ogier (part or even fulltime) at Toyota.

While the internal competition would be fun it would basically completely destroy the series. Hyundai would likely leave soon and MSport will keep running (young) paydrivers only.

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

Everything is BS from him. I don’t even get how he still works, the guy is such a embarrassment

Yesterday after the rally he said confidently that Ott is staying and then told that there is a big chance that Neuville will leave instead and go to Msport cause Wilson officers him a championship winning car.

He also told that Mikkelsen forgot to turn off the intercom with the team And was caught on the liaison talking about how many rallies and what contact would he get if Tänak leaves and the whole Škoda team heard this.

After this sentence the other guys on podcast asked him “wait, on which rally this happened?” And Martinson answered: ”here in Spain” and the guys said to him, “wait, what, Mikkelsen wasn’t in Spain” and then he basically couldn’t answer and in the end said it must have happened in New Zealand then, Mikkelsen also didn’t participate there as we know. What a joke

This is just one example how bad this guy is and I totally get it why Ott doesn’t like him one bit

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Yeah, you are totally right. That old guy can’t separate dreams from real life anymore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EstWRC

Everything is BS from him. I don’t even get how he still works, the guy is such a embarrassment

Yesterday after the rally he said confidently that Ott is staying and then told that there is a big chance that Neuville will leave instead and go to Msport cause Wilson officers him a championship winning car.

He also told that Mikkelsen forgot to turn off the intercom with the team And was caught on the liaison talking about how many rallies and what contact would he get if Tänak leaves and the whole Škoda team heard this.

After this sentence the other guys on podcast asked him “wait, on which rally this happened?” And Martinson answered: ”here in Spain” and the guys said to him, “wait, what, Mikkelsen wasn’t in Spain” and then he basically couldn’t answer and in the end said it must have happened in New Zealand then, Mikkelsen also didn’t participate there as we know. What a joke

This is just one example how bad this guy is and I totally get it why Ott doesn’t like him one bit

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Listened to it at the same time and thought how Delfi still is giving him a job, everyone laughs and mocks his interviews and thanks to the fact that Tänak doesnt respect him, we dont get any decent estonian interviews.
Even the guys who asked him about the rumours almost couldnt hold a straight face and seemed in the end they just gave up trying to find any logic in his statements. I bursted out laughing when he sayd Neuville will go to m-sport, they cannot pay him well but will give him a winning car

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Originally Posted by meh

Pure speculation, but ... if Tänak goes to M-Sport and Loeb does some extra rallies, they have driver with 1 title + "visitor driver" with 9 titles.

Toyota have pretty much the same, Rovanperä with one title and visitor Ogier with 8 titles.

... and Hyundai sending Solberg away with announcement, that they want more experienced lineup.

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Just let me tell you that all the missing pieces in the puzzle have been put in their respectful places a long time ago. Now we start to hear about them. Remember Akio's statement in Ypres? Solberg fired a week before Catalunya? Tänak and Hyundai split announcement before Japan?

And no, I don't have waterproof information, just try to see some logic behind it.

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Originally Posted by cali

Just let me tell you that all the missing pieces in the puzzle have been put in their respectful places a long time ago. Now we start to hear about them. Remember Akio's statement in Ypres? Solberg fired a week before Catalunya? Tänak and Hyundai split announcement before Japan?

And no, I don't have waterproof information, just try to see some logic behind it.

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.. and in Spain there were 2 a bit out of fighting mood drivers, both were a bit lost and "struggling with car setup", one was Tänak and we already got the announcement. Another one was Evans.

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Originally Posted by meh

.. and in Spain there were 2 a bit out of fighting mood drivers, both were a bit lost and "struggling with car setup", one was Tänak and we already got the announcement. Another one was Evans.

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Bingo!

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Originally Posted by mknight

Well my biggest fear is we get Rovanpera, Tanak and Ogier (part or even fulltime) at Toyota.

While the internal competition would be fun it would basically completely destroy the series. Hyundai would likely leave soon and MSport will keep running (young) paydrivers only.

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I do hope that Toyota has enough sense to avoid that. WRC's lifeline is fragile enough as it is and having all aces in one team would destroy the series beyond recovery.

Tanak-Evans -switch doesn't make much sense. Why would Evans willingly depart to a team that for him is worse choice in every way? Why would Toyota not retain him, assuming they don't want the WRC-destroying line-up of Rovanpera-Tanak-Ogier for next year - and assuming that Latvala spoke truth when he said he'd like to keep current line-up?

What is curious that normally when driver switches teams, new team is announced immediately but this time Tanak simply said that he leaves Hyundai without giving any clues as to where to. The most sensible option, ie. Tanak going to M-Sport, would have been announced on the spot, that desperate M-Sport is. Since it hasn't, I wonder what gives...

These are just my hopes and opinions, zero facts.