I havent make any analysis, but by memory, without technical problems Tanak was generally quicker than Ogier on every rally accept Monte.
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So no Meeke you think? I don't think so, i guess he will be there with Mikkelsen and Breen and on special events there will be Lefebvre in combination with a R5 adventure. Mister Lim in the Hyundai and the Japanese Toyota guy will not happen before 2019. Camille no so long Ogier is in the team and besides i think Ostberg & Evans are normalwise better option. Toyota will sign Meeke or Evans if available or Camille (and Hanninen for special events). Ans there's also Tidemand in the game, maybe something for Hyundai in the future. We will see, silly-season will be long this year.
Yes, but who? First time it failed (some fault in VW there yes) and now the Polo hasn`t been developed since December and others are seven events and almost six months further, by the end of the year 13 events? Cheaper to pay M-Sport (or maybe some other team in the future?). To run a Polo would also mean a minimum team of two cars.
Unfortunately Meeke WRC carreer is over in my opinion.
jparker we know you hate M-Sport. Don’t worry, VW not come, Ogier will stay with Ford.
Okay my bad about running it privately then. But as Tarmop pointed out all the other cars have advanced now. It might have me sense for Ogier and Mikkelsen to run it privately this year but not anymore now. If you consider M-Sport finds it difficult to pay Ogiers wages who the hell could prepare enough money to get him interested. One way or the other it will not happen.
I think the VW could still be a match for the current cars. They had at least 6 months advantage with preparations, probably more. But I think we will never know for sure.
surprised to see Latvala mentioned, he said he will quit his career :p
Monte - Ogier faster
Sweden - Tanak faster
Mexico - Ogier faster
Corsica - Ogier faster
Argentina - Tanak faster
Portugal - not taking cleaning on first day into account they had very similar speed
Sardinia - Tanak faster, but Ogier had bad road position both Friday and Saturday
So Tanak was clearly faster 2-3 times, Ogier 3 times. At best this is a draw.
Guys please are we really comparing Tanak e Ogier?
Tanak is growing good and I am optimistic about him but sometimes I am astounded about how some of you are result oriented sometimes.
How can you not take into account how Ogier has mastered everyone since 2013? He is in another planet. Of course I hope someone will reach that planet to have some proper fight but it's not the case of Tanak at the moment.
Why would Camilli be back? Apart from his decent run in Sardinia, he hasn't been impressive in WRC2 this year. I'd rather hire Tidemand as a new talent. Or Suninen, depending on how the two next events go.
Not quite so. The problem with the ‘17 Polo was homologation rules. In order to be homologated a WRC car must be run on a 2 car team for a whole season (the team can be private, as long it's designated by the manu). The first option (Jipocar running Ogier and Prokop) would be valid but apparently it failed when Al Attiyah got in the middle, delaying the project and interfering with Ogier's chossing window. Mikkelsen's project failed because it was a one car project to be entered on selected events and the other teams didn't consent that kind of rules exception. Anyway, a new street Polo is going to be launch in September. It makes even harder to believe that VW will allow private teams to run a car based on their old model.
Btw, just a tip on Ogier future: can the 'America First' spirit, that's been developed in the US under the new administration (it'd be nice to hear javanpuura about this) and followed by many big corps (GM selling Opel isn't a coincidence), affect Ford's decision to enter WRC?
PS: no need to wait till September; like petalex said on another thread, the new Polo is going to be presented next Friday (11am CET).
Malcolm Wilson are negotiating with Ford Europe
Why would they? They have a world champion driving 'their' car leading the championship, for very little outlay as m sport are running the cars.
Little or no cost to ford but they can take all the credit.
Would ford come back just to keep Ogier in the car, I doubt it. Very few people that aren't interested in rally, which is a lot of people, wouldn't have a clue who Sebastian Ogier is.
Exactly my point. Why would ford spend millions when someone is doing it for them.
The only way I see ford coming back is if Malcome and Seb suggest to Ford big wigs that they maybe have a little chat with Volkswagen about running Polos next year. It would probably never happen, but then again they do run Bentley GT programme, and who owns Bentley!
So Toyota, Citroen and Hyundai are just doing the WRC for a goof?
It's not just about Ogier, it's also for car development. If they don't come back it will all turn sour next year and the 'free publicity' will be gone. We have been talking about this for pages now.
In Europe, where rallying is quite popular (and so are small cheaps cars which Yaris, Polo, Fiesta, i20 etc are), it would be quite a nice way to advertise ones products. For a big company it`s not such a big amount of money and Ogier isn`t after a huge salary (probably his sponsors pay him enough) but a title-winning car.
No, I'm not suggesting Wilson would threaten Ford, just that I don't see ford coming back unless m sport looked like they were going to pull the plug. Maybe playing devils advocate to a degree, but no, I'm not suggesting that is what Wilson would do.
As for your comment about Toyota, Hyundai, and Citroen in wrc for a goof, they haven't got a company with as high profile as m sport doing all the hard work, well no, they have their own divisions . . . Ok, maybe a little different with Makinen and Toyota, but surely you can work out what I'm getting at.
All the hard work would still be done by M-Sport, question is in money. As for M-Sport pulling the plug, Wilson has started talking about it...not directly, but still, he has said quite many times that they are doing it over their limits and with his personal money and he has no idea what happens next year. He even mentioned that he wanted to win WDC before leaving. This could mean him stepping down and delegating others, maybe Wilson jr. to do all the work/travelling across the world or maybe a hint that this could be the very last season for M-Sport, probably/hopefully not the last.
So is motorsport.
My guess:
Citroen
- Meeke
- Mikkelsen
- Breen
- Al-Qassim (limited program)
Hyundai
- Neuville
- Paddon
- Sordo
- ?
Toyota
- Latvala
- Tänak
- Lappi
- Sunninen (limited program)
M-Sport/Ford
- Ogier
- Evans
- Østberg
- ?
(If we go to Ford Motorsports we get the following choices.
Ford motorsports.
- STOCK CAR RACING
- FOR GT RACING
- ROAD RACING
- RALLYCROSS
- OPERATION
- OFF-ROAD RACING
RALLY is missing that is important to the European market.
To be able to keep Ogier in M-Sport, I think they are ready to support M-Sport in the next few years.
There are trivial in advertising compared to other motor ports they attend.)
DMack M-Sport
- Tidemand
Østberg oficial? No way. Suninen in M-Sport for sure. Tidemand in Toyota maybe?
Hyundai
- Neuville
- Sordo
- Paddon
Toyota
- Latvala
- Tanak
- Lappi
Citroen
- Ogier
- Meeke
- Breen
Msport
- Andreas
- Evans
- Suninen
This is what I'd guess right now (if Ford doesn't return). However if Ford return, Seb will stay and I'm sure Tanak would stay as well despite Tommi's overtures.
Paddon and Meeke both on shaky ground and need good ends to 2017.
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I don't see Ogier in Citroen, unless he is really desperate, and he seem not so last 2 seasons.
Is it just me or was Paddon's driving style cleaner a year or 2 back? Right now he is clearly throwing the car around too much - maybe out of desperation for a good result?
Maybe that's to do with pressure. He been hasn't been great for over a year now. Sadly went backwards after that superb win in Argentina, but thankfully he has age on his side (unlike Meeke) to turn this around. I still believe he has the talent to go on and fight for championships, and he's a great character to have in the sport. Very likeable.
Hyundai have witnessed first hand with Neuville how a driver can suddenly lose his mojo and look lost for a while, before bouncing back stronger. And that can maybe help them manage Paddon back to form before the end of the year. Andreas already has the feelers out and would love a move to Hyundai, what with his comments about how it was easy to drive the VW and the Hyundai quickly compared to the C3.