When dies FIA announce 2019 entry list? We’ll know soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duvel
Printable View
When dies FIA announce 2019 entry list? We’ll know soon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duvel
Suninen has a deal for the whole season, that's what we know for now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duvel
I think the most important thing why Hyundai would want to hire someone like Loeb is to secure manufacturer championship. Both in terms of good results in addition to Neuville and car setup help.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Supporting Neuville doesn't necessarily mean dropping positions to finish behind him, or doing what Evans and Suninen did this year for Ogier. Loeb could support Neuville by winning rallies or finishing ahead of Neuville's title rivals. Taking pts away from the likes of Ogier and Tanak etc. This helps Hyundai and Neuville.
Evans and Suninen got used in almost humiliating fashion sometimes by Msport this year, but it's only because Suninen is a rookie and Evans had an awful season. They wouldn't have been dropping minor places at the end of rallies, or at the end of days to help with running order, if either were up fighting for the wins. Most of the time they were at the back end of the top 10 or 5th,6th,7th at best. Tanak didn't get asked to do that for Seb at Msport, yet he still "supported" Ogiers title bid because he took pts off Neuville by winning rallies and finishing ahead of him.
Ofcourse if Loeb is 3rd and Neuville 4th, they'd swap positions or anything similar. But I'm sure Neuville wants a team mate who is better than what he's got and can be up there sort of challenging. I believe he's said as much himself? Mikkelsen was meant to be that team mate but Neuville has made him look like a mug most of the season.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/motorsport/...er-cruel-year/
Craig says he is "desperately trying to put something together" for next year.
Also says "atmosphere was difficult at times in the team", think that says a lot.....
Hopefully he can but you can see the difficulty of getting a seat in the current climate.
Excellent post summing up exactly why it was fair for Evans and Suninen to support Ogier.Quote:
Originally Posted by er88
He actually says Loeb’s main goal would be helping Hyundai to get championships (manus and drivers); he’s totally rigth underlining how vital Loeb can be to a Hyundai rebound, just like Ogier is for Citroen (and already could have been last year).Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Btw, between call Clark pathetic or considering him the most notorious rally journalist of the world, there’s probably a better way to define his work, once even he admitts not being a journalist. A journalist main job is to inform and report, not to speculate or entertain; in that sense I miss a more active presence of Mr. Holmes, for decades the most respected rally news source, and believe that it’s fair to admit that Evans is now the main reference in that field, no matter how people judge his work. Anyway, Clark surely deserves credit for opening a new kind of rally comunication in the social media and there’s plenty of room and freedom for others to follow him.
Call his style what you will, journalism or creator of speculation, but he clearly doesn’t actually understand the sport, the driving, what’s REALLY going on in the cars, in the drivers heads, on the stages.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rally Power
The guys a complete fraud.
He’s happier talking about how good looking Mikkelsen is, rather than why the Citroen handles like a bag of shit etc.
Honestly, can’t understand why people keep defending the guy.
He literally sits at his keyboard and table and babbles as much crap as his energy reserves will allow him.
As a person, I actually like him (believe it or not), but as someone who has responsibility reporting on rallying, he should be nowhere near it.
Put it this way, if he had to transfer his level of understanding of rallying to premiership football, as a pundit, he wouldn’t even get close to local radio, never mind TV.
I honestly can’t be arsed going over every prediction or thought that’s come out of his mouth since he has somehow gained a bit of momentum, but I reckon if I did, you could literally destroy everything he’s said.
Bring back Mark James and with him a few facts, not this shit.
great to see open mind on this forum... bring back this, that was better back then, blabla. Sport is dying because of this, new generation will not be passionate if we keep talking on how much better was Group B, or that journalist knew so much on car handling it was great.
Come on guys, to attract new fans, sport needs to change. And kitchen table is one great way to capture more people, and it may not be as accurate as the dye hard fan would like it to be, but it's a great piece in my opinion.
The sport is dying because there is a permanent knife edge in terms of manufacturer entries and it’s always in a ‘will they, won’t they’ stay state.Quote:
Originally Posted by spiderem
Fair enough, unfair of me to compare Clarke to Mark James, it’s Desbrough I would have James replace in a shot. I just think that him and Clarke don’t actually ‘get’ the seriousness of the sport they are involved in.
Call it nostalgia or whatever, but when Mark James commentated on the sport, he didn’t make it sound like some fun game, rather the serious spectacle it is.
Maybe Clarke wouldn’t be so bad if he did a kitchen table once in a while, but he seems to do a new one every tome someone farts who’s got anything to do with the WRC and you can hardly call it forecasting or prediction when he literally has a stab at every possible combination of driver team.
Some think this is the way forward in terms of communicating the sport, I honestly think there’s another, much less excitable, method that actually conveys the reality of what these men and women do when they are flat out in a forest.
The sport isn't dying, you don't have to be so melodramatic about it.
You are not obligated to watch his ramblings. I watch his monologues maybe once every two months or so, just to be entertained, not informed. His Kitchen Tables bring joy to a number of people, it's not away from anyone. Colin is not taking a job away from anyone. He is an entertainer, hired PR hand and admittedly a rallying personality. A journalist he is not, but there's a lot of journalist in him. Actually, I don't know if there could be such a thing as a rallying journalist as long as this whole thing revolves around promoting brands. I don't get what satisfaction it gives to people to use energy so much in disliking someone. You don't have to like everybody, but such as in this forum there's an ignore option, it actually can be used in real life too if you learn how to.Quote:
Originally Posted by T16
Seems difficult for some to understand that Clark works for the WRC. It's his job to create content for the rallying community and he does it passionately, like he cares for the sport and what's happening around it. He IS a rally man. In short, in this Red Bull-era where expertise isn't always appreciated, it could be much much worse.Quote:
Originally Posted by T16
By dying, I mean less top cars entering events. In this regard, it definitely is.Quote:
Originally Posted by GravelBen
Mm, quantity isn`t an indicator of quality. We have 4 different makes with good drivers...we`ve had just 2 makes with all sorts of tourists (not saying, it is bad and we still have them occasionally now).
I know it’s not, but I guess there’s two things I’m thinking here...Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarmop
One is that, from a spectator point of view, watching the 10-12 WRC cars leaves you wanting a lot more (especially when they are as good to watch as they are now)... I know some people are into the R5 stuff, but they’re crap to watch in comparison.
So with the above in mind, I’m wondering what the promoters feel about the current entry level, yeah, it’s been a good season championship-wise and it makes good TV, but stage-side, after the first ten cars, it’s not good at all.
Point two is that I’m genuinely worried about how close the series seems every year to losing one or two top teams... yes, Citroen are staying, but imagine if they weren’t, and let’s be honest, if Ogier wasn’t there, there’s a good chance they would have gone.
And next year M-Sport may not show up either. So whilst we have three, maybe four, we are bloody close to only having two... and then what? How long would Hyundai and Toyota slog it out for?
It may seem all rosey, but it certainly isn’t.
I would be gutted if the whole thing imploded and had to start from scratch again.
I just hope those sat in power are being realistic when it comes to evaluating the health of the current WRC.
Simple if the sport will go down they will probably go similar like TCR and WTCC merging. Here they will make R5 the top car and many of them are pretty much still competitive and I'm sure Peugeot (probably will make new one when new 208 arrives), Toyota, Proton will be in the mix of Skoda, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Citroen and M-Sport (on purpose I didn't type Ford because they don't care). And a lot cheaper too.
And if that's the logic, how in the world did the sport came through 1997 alive?Quote:
Originally Posted by T16
Or 2016. Three teams with three cars, Citroens doing one-offs here and there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
FIA Prize Giving 2018 - St Petersburg , Russia
https://www.fia.com/news/fias-fanfar...int-petersburg
Lol looking at the pictures, i have the feeling ingrassia is slightly annoyed to get a "small" trophy again...Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeakiwi
I’m not saying it couldn’t. I’m saying it would be a nightmare if it collapsed again.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
And why do you think, just because it resurrected itself in the past, the same could happen again? There are no guarantees.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...cf8f4b2fb6.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by spiderem
Rossi wins Monza Rally Show ahead of Suninen:
https://www.motorsport.com/rally/new...h-win/4310823/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APm2YMyg7Ew
Incl. Suninen's off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCyPKKAedl8
Martin Holmes is still very active in WRC reporting, with his weekly articles and rally news appearing at www.rallysportmag.com
If you haven't checked out our site, we'd love you to head across and have a look.
Cheers, Peter
Paddon statement here:
https://m.facebook.com/haydenpaddonwrc
Nothing newQuote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
The new thing today is that he admits other teams than Hyundai (=M-Sport) are out of question.
You’re tottaly right about the need for an open mind, but that shouldn’t automatically turn anything new into something great. Besides, like many already said, the WRC (and Rally globally) is not dying, on the contrary, it’s living the most fantastic era since a long time, with mindblowing cars, a top drivers level and a media coverage like never before.Quote:
Originally Posted by spiderem
Anyway, there’s no doubt that Clark is a WRC passioned commentator, with a reasonable understanding and knowledge of the sport and although I prefer to read his pieces than watching KT, his emissions are proving there’s room for some kind of WRC weekly special; a proper show produced by Red Bull crew using their free channel, or by All Live staff on WRC+, would be very welcomed.
Thank’s for remember; with so many good rally sites, including yours, it’s becoming a bit hard to follow all.Quote:
Originally Posted by RallySport Mag
Martin Holmes was on a recent podcast and I lost count of the number of times he answered 'I dont know'.
I'm afraid he sounded like he's past it.
Martin Holmes was past it even when he was with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
The advantage back in the 90's were what one was used to, and a healthy number of privateers.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
In 2016 you also had privateers that could join in.
Not so much these days.
http://juwra.com/2016_result_compilation.htmlQuote:
Originally Posted by Myrvold
what is the best privateer result in 2016? Ligato and Prokop finishing 7th? That's as high as the best WRC2 drivers can do these days as well. Once you're the next fastest car after the slowest works WRC, it doesn't matter much if you're in a WRC or R5 car.
http://juwra.com/1997_result_compilation.html
In 1997 there was even more private Group A and WRC cars, but rarely they were faster than the works cars. On a quick look Uwe Nittel was the only works driver that got beaten by privateers, or Auriol in the still troublesome Toyota Corolla WRC.
Exactly. It wouldn't make the sport any better (or worse for that matter) if we had 10 Al-Qassimis and Serderidises motoring around the stages with latest-spec WRCs. There's so much more to take into account than only the number of top class entries.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
At least all works teams could run all 3 cars. If Citroen will win the titles then it's matter of time when Hyundai and Toyota will cut off their 3rd cars. Then two more seats will be lost...Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Remember that Toyota and Citroen ran good parts of their 2017 seasons with just two cars. Citroen had first DS3’s as third car and often Al-Qassimi as third driver. Although Citroen and Hyundai did run four cars in one rally, plus Østberg and Suninen brought some competitive private entries.
Oh yes, there's no denying that.Quote:
Originally Posted by deephouse
True, it's understandable because new rules comes and they haven't had ready that much cars in time, but after what a half of a year they start doing with just two beacuse it's too expensive. It would be different if few seasons passed already. Really hope that all teams stay comited and will no reduce their involvement.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
After two days (Monday-Tuesday) with Teemu Suninen, it's now over for M-Sport test days #MonteCarlo2019 during this week ► http://bit.ly/2EqWmfh