pieces falling into place? Citroen "get rid" of Matton who screwed up their re-entry to WRC, Famin comes in and brings Loeb along.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomhlord
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pieces falling into place? Citroen "get rid" of Matton who screwed up their re-entry to WRC, Famin comes in and brings Loeb along.Quote:
Originally Posted by tomhlord
Farmin? He was lucky to save his neck after ’15 Dakar flop…btw, aren’t we being a bit unfair to Matton? Yep, he failed to manage Citroen ’17 full return to WRC, but besides 2012 WRC titles and after Loeb’s departure, what more could a low budget Citroen realistically hope than being 2nd to VW, like they were in 13/14/15 (they missed ’16)?Quote:
Originally Posted by seb_sh
Besides, he was also behind Citroen’s WTCC successful campaign and it was thanks to Matton that Meeke returned to the WRC, besides allowing two young drivers, Lefebvre and Breen, to start and carry on WRC careers.
If he’s confirmed as FIA rally chief I believe he’ll do better than Mahonen and won’t defend his predecessor (or the promoter) foolish proposals. Fingers crossed.
I didn't mean to judge Matton or put all blame on him; was just putting together some context for the rotation of positions. He has a fair share of blame for sure but I don't think it's all on him.
He's not a bad choice to replace Mahonen imo, from memory i don't think he had crazy ideas a la Capito, but we'll see.
Matton has flopped so badly in Citroen, that it's not even funny. He took an all conquering squad, which under his watch has turned into a laughing stock. From ousting Ogier, to not renewing Neuville for 4 events, then allienating Loeb, ignoring Meeke, his shortcomings are endless. As for WTCC, the rules were tailor made to Citroen, and on top of the best car , they also had the best drivers in Muller and Lopez. So, winning the championships there wasn't exactly a triumph of the outsider.
Many may be sceptical, with the last year of Citroën Racing, although it's probably easy to point all failure to him. Even if he doesn't have any influence on the car itself, and even if Meeke himself asked to step back for Poland... I think Matton could be a great choice to run as rally manager for FIA. He used to drive himself as an amateur in the late 80's, early 90's. During the 90s he started a team offering cars for rent etc, and he founded the Citroën Rally Challenge in Belgium, which every rally enthousiast from Belgium remembers. It was a great competition for drivers with limited budget. Later he started at Citroën Racing and worked his way up. Alongside that he was running MY Racing where many young drivers got their chances to drive (like Neuville and Weijs). He knows the sport on all levels and has seen it from different points of view. He was also the one who countered the (stupid) ideas of Capito. If I'm not mistaken, Matton was also the one who wanted more freedom for organizers to create longer events (and to create or keep their own identity), a couple of years ago. So in my point of view, I think it wouldn't be a bad choice...
I won’t say your recall is wrong, as time goes by and we all tend to forget things, but this is the way I remember: Ogier (still under Quesnel management) leaved at the end of 2011 because he wasn’t happy about being Citroen’s number two; Loeb leaved at the start of 2013 because he was tired from 10 full WRC seasons; Meeke was picked up by Matton in late 2013, when nobody cared about him; WRC budget suffered a huge bump after Citroen started to run WTCC (2014) and, like you say, Loeb was dispensed in last WTCC season because they decided to run just 2 cars and he was slower than Lopez/Muller. All considered I can only see one major flop in Matton’s path: 2017.Quote:
Originally Posted by macebig
not from Muller.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rally Power
Quick check on wikipedia:Quote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
2014: 1st Lopez (462 points/10 wins/7 poles)/ 2nd Muller (336/4/3)/ 3rd Loeb (295/3/0)
2015: 1st Lopez (475/10/7)/ 2nd Muller (357/6/3)/ 3rd Loeb (356/4/1)
357 vs 356 points doesnt indicate a faster driver.
True, but having all 2014/15 stats in Muller favour seems a much more reliable indicator than your subjective opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
From what we know, getting rid of Ogier and Neuville happened to please Loeb. And then, Matton manages to stray Citroen and Loeb's relationship after 2015 WTCC season. Really questionable leadership if you ask me.
Fair enough. The episode was a sort of PR nightmare for Citroen. It’s still hard to understand why Matton wasn’t able to present Loeb’s move to Peugeot as a normal situation among PSA brands.Quote:
Originally Posted by macebig
Sweet lord. FIFA, IOC, FIA, you name it every sports comitee is utterly corrupt. They are worse than the Mafia. Here you have a guy who took over a team that seemingly couldn't stop winning championships to save their lives and somehow managed to bring it to the shitters, then gets the sack from said team and those funny men go 'you know what? he should manage the whole sport!'
Whoopdeefuckingdoo.
Some news on a few things to expect tomorrow at the Autosport Show launch via Motorsport News.
- News on another M-Sport driver
- Mads Ostberg plans for 2018
That's on top of the WRC+ stuff. I was going to go to the show but it looks like all drivers and team personnel will leave after Friday, just ahead of the actual public fan days starting at the weekend. You need to be media or trade to go on Thu/Fri. I completely get why they wouldn't hang around in Birmingham for four days, but for the paying punter you won't see anyone!
why you want to see them ? you do not know how they look like ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
There's the Autosport stage during punter days, with intereviews all day with racing drivers. Hopefully a current and ex-WRC stars are interveiwed. At the very least, Petter Solberg usually sticks around.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
what i wantto say is that Loeb extracted from wtcc programm because he had to go to rally raids with peugeot,not because he was slow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rally Power
So:
Is Yves Matton better option for FIA job than Jarmo Lehtinen ?
Both have their merits, but which one would suit better for FIA job ?
Hard to say, I have no opinion.
More details about tomorrow’s launch https://t.co/fyHgzSqr1u
Reaveling his plans to replace Mahonen?Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre Oliveira
I have a feeling the M-Sport cars will be the only ones with significantly changed liveries.
All 3 in Red Bull design
Bouffier will not have Red Bull design...Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre Oliveira
All 3 not counting with Bryan :) tomorrow we will see
I'm pretty certain Ogier's and Evans' car will havr the Red Bull design I don't know about Suninen though.
MN says the show is live on Autosport.com.
Also says it's on Motorsport TV but not listed on my EPG.
meh, seems that even m-sport aren bringing anything new to the table...and why the hell is the Toyota in gravel spec?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre Oliveira
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTMf9FRX...pg&name=medium
Well it is gonna be dark blue, red, yellow and silver or white there was never much choice.Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
Bit of a let down that all cars liveries are basically the same as last year. Especially with this being a big public launch...
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Is it my eyes - or does the C3 still say WRC 2017 on the side?
It's true. They didn't bother to change the sticker from last year.
It does indeed. I zoomed into the picture.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
https://scontent.fopo2-2.fna.fbcdn.n...99&oe=5AF393AAQuote:
Originally Posted by Watson
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by er88
and they made the Toyota even more messy...
So anyhow, all the liveries are the same ugly ones we got last year except for M-Sport Ford.....can't say I'm surprised but still disappointed....
I understand that the Yaris is stuck with the livery as it is used across multiple disciplines of racing. But the C3 could have used a change to help forget about the 2017 season..