[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

I could read between the lines that you were instantly thinking about Tidemand. But you must also remember that Tidemand has years of experience from WRC rallies, even from older generation WRC cars and he is a WRC2 champion. Also, when Tidemand self-funds two drives, we expect him to show something to get team bosses interested. Katsuta meanwhile doesn't have to prove anything, since he's hired by a manufacturer to become a professional WRC driver because it will have a marketing value for the company to have a local driver.

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That´s absolutely the BIG difference. driving without pressure.

One has to recall, Tidemand (this particular example - there are several others...) not drove much more than WRC2 rallies. In between there were not many occasions for him to get additional experience. Not like our Mr Katsuta, whom I wish all well in his career, of course. :)

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Originally Posted by Rallyper

What I meant, with a bit of sarcasm, was that people in this forum expects Tidemand to be top three in sweden in his 2nd outing in WRC car... Others get training years and years and still no expectations what so ever...

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That is because we expect tideman to do well. He is wrc2 champion.

We don't really expect that from katsuta, he's only there because of japanese nationalism.

nice to have Japanese driver in WRC. remember Arai sr with AllStars Prodrive squad with some nice results. Maybe Katsuta could do top10 on some of these ralllies

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Originally Posted by denkimi

That is because we expect tideman to do well. He is wrc2 champion.

We don't really expect that from katsuta, he's only there because of japanese nationalism.

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Of course. Life isn´t fair. I would say...

Swedish drivers on national level mostly pay from their own pockets. That´s the state in sweden.

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Originally Posted by Rallyper

Of course. Life isn´t fair. I would say...

Swedish drivers on national level mostly pay from their own pockets. That´s the state in sweden.

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I think this is the state in every country. Although, usually everyone has a sponsor of some kind, but rarely the drivers can be full-time professional rally drivers.

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Originally Posted by Rallyper

Swedish drivers on national level mostly pay from their own pockets. That´s the state in sweden.

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Like it is the state also in any other country. Only thing that can be argued is that the support of local motorsport authority absolutely sucks in Sweden. But also for this the situation is the same in most other countries, with few exceptions (like FFSA in France).

EDIT: Dammit AnttiL, beaten :D

I can see Katsuta driving also Rally Japan 2020 in a Yaris WRC. Since they want to abandon Tour de Corse and he need to prepare for tarmac.

I was looking again at Tidemand's times from Monte and Sweden, and whilst there were a handful of really poor times his performance overall perhaps wasn't as bad as the memory told me. On the other hand there were no real eye catching performances either that might excite a team manager or sponsor.

I do hope he can find some more cash and do a couple more events to show us something more.

Toyota could maybe run a 'A' team and 'B' team next year. (Rovernpera and Katsuta).. 2 cars each, and notimate a 3rd driver from B team

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Originally Posted by deephouse

I can see Katsuta driving also Rally Japan 2020 in a Yaris WRC. Since they want to abandon Tour de Corse and he need to prepare for tarmac.

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It's also clear that Katsuta is put to Germany and Spain to prepare for Rally Japan 2019.