Tom Cave must be favourite out of the Brits as he has already been driving an i20 this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Ingram (& Huttunen) has a chance to win the money for an R5 drive via the JERC.
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Tom Cave must be favourite out of the Brits as he has already been driving an i20 this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Ingram (& Huttunen) has a chance to win the money for an R5 drive via the JERC.
After Monte and Sweden they looked like by far the best car, same was true for most rallies and in Poland they got max points.
Then came Finland and Germany, at both rallies they ended as the last manufacturer. In Finland that was probably not so unexpected but in Germany people (including me) thought they would dominate. Even without the mistakes the stagetimes didn't look much better than others, certainly not compared to Monte or Corsica.
Also before Monte their drive lineup was regarded as by far the best for manu title. Now what happens is that Paddon typically messes up on gravel rallies (where he is strongest) and Sordo messes tarmac rallies and brings safe points from gravel. On top of that they still have reliability issues.
Really wondering if some alarm bells are starting to sound at their HQ or they are thinking it's "bad luck".
My opinion is that the Hyundai was the most 'sorted' and easiest to drive early in the season, but I saw somewhere that it doesn't rely so much on aero (Maybe the VW designer) like the others, and now that in particular the Ford and Toyota are getting the set up of their cars right, the Hyundai doesn't have the last 1 or 2 tenths in pure pace...Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
I'm no expert and I'm only saying what I see, but those two cars seem to have a more solid rear end, the Ford seemed prone to understeer earlier in the season, but looks better recently.
Yes Ogier wasn't happy with the turn-in on Ford until those new diffs before Portugal. Toyota supposedly changed a lot on engine and looks a bit more stable. Citroen supposedly changes a lot of things.
So might be that others are improving yes, even more reason for alarm bells to ring at Hyundai.
Yes I remember now about the new diffs in the Ford for Portugal...The Toyota engine still sounds a bit flat, but it does seem to go ok, and in the WRC+ commentary Julian Porter did say they had been taking some weight out of the car, so coupled with engine development it seems they are getting there, I think the Yaris has the best chassis balance.
The Citroen is all over the place, when its got good traction it looks very good, but when the surface is slippery it looks positively evil.
The Hyundai stills looks good, but the Ford and Toyota in particular just seem to have a bit extra, and even the Shitroen when its in its window...maybe thats where the Hyundai drivers mistakes are coming from, over driving...
Might all be rubbish however and its just circumstance!
I think the gap to M-Sport is because of the drivers form and consistency this year. Ogier is Ogier while Tänak and Evans have taken a step up as drivers. Tänak has added the consistency to his game while Evans has dared more. All three drivers have been very good this year.
Paddon's year has been rotten to say the least, Sordo is a solid points scorer but he hasn't produced anything special yet this year and besides Spain he probably won't. Neuville has been the main contributor but he's has also thrown away points, small mistakes with big consequences.
M-Sport has a flow going, when one falter the others are there to pick up a podium. The same can't be said about Hyundai.
cant agree moreQuote:
Originally Posted by BigWorm
I don't deny the M-Sport guys have been driving well, but I just see a relative improvement in pace from them in general, and the car looks like its handling better than earlier in the season.
You're right, Paddon has had a stinker and Poland aside its been a bit of a disaster for him. I hope it turns around as I like him and would like to see him get back to the level I think he is capable of. Sordo seems to have dropped away as the season has gone on, his speed was great early season but gradually that seems to have wained. He's never really been able to drive a whole rally at the top level, but his relative speed has fallen away. Neuville seems to have lost a bit of his edge too.
As I said, it's just my ramblings but I think the others have caught up with Hyundais early season pace and in the case of Ford and Toyota maybe just sneaked ahead.
Most of the gravel rallies Paddon has had good speed and been let down by the car though - for sure he's had a bad season but you can't blame it all on him, pretty sure he's been let down by the car more times than driving mistakes.
Paddon had power steering failures in Sweden, Portugal and Argentina, a misfire in Mexico, and an electrical failure in Portugal. In Argentina and Monte he rolled the car and in Sardegna and Finland he clipped a wheel. In TDC and Germany he was just off the pace (with some punctures in Germany) and Poland was a clean run.
Sordo had a technical problem on the street stages in Mexico, broke a steering arm in Argentina and had engine problems in Sardegna. Germany was his first true driving error of the season and in Finland he was just off the pace.
Meanwhile, Neuville hasn't really had technical problems slowing him down.
Neuville lost brakes on Sardinia loosing a minute and dropping from 2nd (behind Paddon who crashed later) to 4th.
He also had overheating issues in Mexico just like all cars except Citroen.
That brake issue was most probably the result of one of his lucky escapes.
I think Hyundai are about to miss the biggest chance for WMC they ever had.
They were in best position this year, yet they were not able to capitalize on that.
With Citroen getting back in the game, and Toyota getting stronger, next year will be even harder. In order to protect the investments they have made, and to have better chances next year, they need another top driver. That's why my bet is Ogier signing with Hyunday.
Hyundai has the budget for Ogier, but I think he would go to Citroen before going to Hyundai.
Also rumor has it TGR has a crazy huge budget.
8 young drivers picked for the next stage of the young driver scheme:
Emil Bergkvist, Gus Greensmith, Jari Huttunen, Karl Kruuda, Pepe Lopez, Pierre-Louis Loubet, René Mandel and Kalle Rovenpera.
better start now than later to write it correctly: Rovanperä ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
A bit strange that some one like Mandel, with no (I think) international experience is in the selection. Expected Veiby and Ingram in it too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
Veiby has a contract with Skoda, no? For his APRC programme.
That probably counts him out.
This season he's driving for the Printsport team on WRC events and MRF team on APRC events. Not the factory team. It's comparable to Greensmith being a current M-Sport driver. Unless of course he has a deal for next year as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by rallyfiend
Haha I just copied that from Hyundai directly. Bit sloppy from them. They also spelled Bergkvist wrong but I corrected that for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
I guess conceivably Rovanperä could win this drive and then turn it down if he gets a better offer elsewhere. E.g. M-Sport's rumoured BRC/WRC2/WRC testing.
Could Rovanperä do BRC also with Hyundai? He can take part in only three WRC events next year before he turns 18 in October. I understood that Hyundai's incentive was to have the winner contesting strongly on WRC2 next year. Other than that, the WRC testing option, just like at M-Sport, would be a great benefit at Hyundai compared to Skoda for instance.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
Just out of curiosity, why Fins demand their names spelled in their own alfabet? It's common to write foreign names in English differently than original language.Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
Hyundai's tweet had "Rovenpera", which is incorrect even with the umlauts omitted. "Rovanpera" is fine with me. I mean, I don't bother with the accents on French names either, I'll never get them correctly.Quote:
Originally Posted by jparker
I remember in old foreign skiing tv broadcasts the system didn't have 'ä' so it was turned into 'ae' and Väätäinen became Vaeaetaeinen
Also my wife laughed at Østberg being turned into Ostberg on TV, because it changes the meaning of the name from 'east mountain' to 'cheese mountain'.
It's Finns.Quote:
Originally Posted by jparker
You got me here :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hartusvuori
A source from within and that's all I'm going to say. The same source that told me Toyota wants Tanak very much, but they do not know if Malcom will let him go. Suninen is next in line after Tanak and Ogier no chance in hell is coming to Toyota. Apparently he and Tommi did not get along. Ogier was too arrogant during the test and made a few comments that did not sit well with Tommi and the team..Quote:
Originally Posted by logic
By the way this really isn't nothing new. There were a few articles from the press with similar storie.
How can he hold him up? Tänak is free agent after this season
What about Mikkelsen, I thought Toyota would like to get him if not Tänak? As much as I like Suninen, wouldn't having him and Lappi be a bit too much of inexperienced drivers for one team?Quote:
Originally Posted by racerx1979
What I got from our discussion was that Tanak wants an increase in salary (this was not said outright, but it's what I took from our convo) and this was before his win in Germany. What I took from this was that Ott will stay with M-Sport if they pay him more than what Toyota will offer. This is when I asked "does Toyota have the money for an driver with Tanak's experience?" and the response was "they have a very big budget for WRC. He also mentioned that Tanak and Suninen would fit really well with the team. Mikkelsen's name never came up. Only guys mentioned were Ogier, Tanak and Suninen. Apparently Suninen is the hardest working driver at the moment. He has been doing drives with several different coaches and did so before Finland as well. Was told he is very driven to succeed and willing to learn and Toyota really likes that about him.
And to answer EstWRC I had no idea Tanak was a free agent and this was also not brought up.
And to add to this I was told Tommi is really fond of Juho. I guess Juho was there from the start and Tommi has a solid relationship with him and believes he can do a lot better and needs more time doing WRC events. Everyone on the team is hoping he does well for the sake of his future. I guess he is the "nice guy" everyone likes and has a great personality even though he does not come off that way in his interviews.
He would be the Sordo of Toyota if he can keep the same pace as the last two events.
Any insight as to why they seem to be losing a lot of their people? E.g. Lehtinen, Simon Carrier, before Finland it looked like Tom Fowler was leaving, etc. I would assume that if they were losing people it would be because they didn't have the budget to retain them. Hard to understand well-paid employees leaving a team with so much promise for the future.Quote:
Originally Posted by racerx1979
Because Tommi is a nightmare to work for...Quote:
Originally Posted by sonnybobiche
Even Finns have been stampeding out the door....
Maybe because of Tommi..
It is very, very unlikely that he is a total free-agent.Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
For sure Malcolm will have some rights over him for the future like he has with other drivers. Malcolm will take some of their future earnings, like he did with Thierry in the first few years of his Hyundai deal to pay back the year with M-Sport in the Qatar car.
Malcolm doesn't invest in these drivers to just let them go....
His own words this spring, to local fans, in a live video-conference were, that he couldn`t join Toyota for this year, because he had a deal with M-Sport, but this deal WILL END this season. Ofcourse he doesn`t invest in them just to let them go, but he has been in M-Sport for many years now, 2014-2017, not counting 2012. In the beginning lots of money came from Estonian sponsors too+ DMack.
Of course you could question if Tänak would be doing the right thing by going to Toyota (apart from salary maybe, but that's something we don't know). Now at M-Sport everything seems in place, if you see his performance and the results that follow. I think it can't get much better than that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarmop
But this is a Hyundai thread, we're going off... ;)
Not at all. I'm assuming Tommi is under a lot of pressure from Toyota high-ups.Quote:
Originally Posted by sonnybobiche
Maybe something like this :)
Tommi: We want more money
Toyota: Okay, why?
Tommi: So we can compete at top level
Toyota: Here you go.. now go compete at top level
Tommi: Fu@k!!
They seem to be competing pretty well so far this year?Quote:
Originally Posted by racerx1979
Let's switch over to the Toyota thread
http://www.rallit.fi/kalle-rovanpera...laista-ajanut/Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Here Kalle also says he might not be the driver Hyundai wants as he is not able to do many WRC events in 2018 but is happy to be selected and for the oppoturnity to test the Hyundai R5.
Veiby had to turn down Hyundai due to existing contracts, the shoot out also clashed with Malaysia.
https://parcferme.no/nyheter/ingen-n...ole-christian/