Thought the same, I don't see Katsuta beating him to be honest.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
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Thought the same, I don't see Katsuta beating him to be honest.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
I hope I'm wrong, but the feeling I have is that he's going to struggle with the car and be a long way off the pace.
He's clearly not a bad driver - he won't be beaten by any Rally2s on pure pace, that's for sure - but I can't see him being quicker than Katsuta.
Sebastien Loeb goes to Dakar with... Dacia factory team:
https://media.dacia.com/dacia-enters...lly-from-2025/
Latvala Will be the slowest Rally1 car.Quote:
Originally Posted by becher
If not, it would be an impressive feat.
He will beat at least one Ford due Toyotas better reliability
As I said...Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/latva...eam-principal/
Maybe he didn’t think they were spending enough on repair bills.
It’s nothing more than a glorified ego trip.
What the hell :D This is why we can't have nice things. Would you say the same about Grönholm doing Rally Sweden in 2010 or 2019? Or Loeb? He also had some years between his stints.Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
On his day Latvala was one of the fastest drivers out there and has done so much for rallying with this passion for historic cars and for rallying overall. And considering what kind of bad luck he had with Toyota in his last WRC, I think he has rather earned this ride. To say he is satisfying his ego is too much I would say.
The difference I suppose with Gronholm and Loeb is that they’re proven world champions. Did Latvala ever come close?
Latvala is just so passionate about rallying and everything that comes with it.. Even look at his own cars museum that is opened to everybody with all the stories etc..
It's rude to call it an ego trip.. wtf
If he had raced in R5 or Evo then all would have been okay, but get the chance to drive rally1 is suddenly bad :D
Why so sour grapes.. as you are also involved in rally racing..
What sour grapes? Do you think I would rather be doing it instead? No. Did I say it was bad? No. Did I say he wasn’t passionate about rallying? No.
It’ll end in tears. But we can have another discussion in a few weeks time.
If one would have been given a chance to drive/(co-drive) the top rally car and said no.. then it is something wierd..
But okay, nevermind
About ego trip.. :D
making a personal thread about entering a rally doesn't count right..
Not really, but what’s that got to do with it? Latvala is easily in the same company as Loeb, Gronholm, Hirvonen, Evans, Neuville - not necessarily all world champions, but all are multiple time world rally winners. If it were Serderidis, Al-Qassimi, Novikov or Bertelli I could understand the cynicismQuote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
:rotflmao:
This is what I never got with rally people. Every non world champion is a muppet?Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
Yes, I also don't understand where all this negativity on the forum comes from.Quote:
Originally Posted by becher
Social media negativity and toxicity invades forums as well
Is it Latvala, Serdenidis, Munster... does not matter - someone can make their dreams come true, often they have had worked hard to do so.
"Rally1 startlist is so small", "Oh this dude does not deserve the drive!" - is it our/forum commentators thing to "decide" who can drive and who can not. Luckily, no one gives a s*it what you/we are thinking here. Everyone have always option just to not follow and watch it.
I think Latvala has still nice audience and I hope he is doing well based on his own expectations. I take it as work-bonus for him.
Well I might eat my own words, but I don't see why a driver of Latvalas caliber should not still be fairly quick. He's no Loeb granted, but it's not the typical finish 50th birthday start either.
based on his comments, it's more like 50th birthday (he actually has long way to go for that), but... he is competitor - when helmet goes on and start light says go, probably the theory will be left behind :)Quote:
Originally Posted by becher
Of course it is, I meant more that he isn't retired for long whereas the likes of Grönholm, Alen, Salonen were retired for a long time before they came back for their 50th birthday and therefore their lack competitiveness was logic.Quote:
Originally Posted by meh
https://www.rallye-sport.fr/le-wrc-v...euves-en-2024/
Didn't Chile sign a multiple-year deal?
Deals can be broken with a bigger pay check, the WRC rounds are all down to money now, it looks like there's no guarantee that you'll be there if someone offers the promoter more moneyQuote:
Originally Posted by Eli
Have you ever heard about this visionary?
https://dirtfish.com/rally/rallyings...6zjuZaZeVqL79g
Anyone have collected any info or have any indication how different/similar are Lappi's and Suninens driving styles, i mean Hyundai seems to suit Lappi very well, i mean we will know in a few days but, just wondering if anybody has made any "recce" on that?
Hmm how did they compare at M Sport? Anyone remembers any comments regarding setup?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyest
The cars are so different I dont think driving styles from the old Fiesta would be very relevant.
Suninen comments after Lõuna-Eesti Ralli test:
"That was really good preparation for the rally, got a good feeling and good preparation for the car. For Estonia, it will be tough to match the pace of the top guys, but to be close would be enough."
Of course it does, what a specific driver expects and wants from a car in terms of behavior doesn't change with the regulations, if the car can give him what he wants however does change with that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
I expect Lappi to be close to Tänak-Rovanperä and clearly faster than Neuville. If Suninen is faster than Neuville, it's really strong result from him.
South-Estonia rally had 3 loops on 3 stages and Suninen showed some progress - loss per km to Tänak:
1st loop: 1.13, 0.62, 0.89
2nd loop: 0.40, 0.45, 0.79
3rd loop: 0.44, 0.21, 0.30
Tänak was first on the road, always some extra cleaning disadvantage.
What he said in 2021 about the benefit of driving the Fiesta Rally2 car...Quote:
Originally Posted by becher
“Next year with Rally1 car, there’s no centre differential and we’re back to a [stick] gearshift and there’s going to be less aerodynamics,” he said.
“For the driving, this is more similar to the current Rally2 cars. OK, there’s no battery and a lot more power coming, like we will have for Rally1, but the actual driving style is maybe like [the] R5 car. To take more experience of driving a car in specification like this is good."
Aj there is a difference between the driving style a car requires and the "driving style" of a driver (=> driver preference, what sort of behavior a driver likes and expects from a car). As driving styles of different drivers are often discussed on the forum I thought it would be clear what I meant.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Neuville’s idea for format changes:
https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...osal/10497210/
Sounds bloody awful to me
Saw it just now, I'm not sure how making Sunday like he proposes any better, sounds like a mess. Good thing he doesn't want the qualifying stage back.Quote:
Originally Posted by HKSjbg
I got what you meant but adapting to a very different car like the Rally1 with less aero, no centre diff and regenerative hybrid is difficult whatever your style.Quote:
Originally Posted by becher
Also with Suninen not being a full-time driver its case of him adapting his style to the car.
Wow. My favourite line: “Then after that nobody knows. I could be the [Fernando] Alonso of the WRC.”Quote:
Originally Posted by Eli
Except Fernando Alonso won 2 world driver's titles... :spinhead:
So a shorter rally and on sunday a 2 stage (2x same stage) rallysprint. Meh... I don't think there's a proper way to make sunday exciting, apart from the few times it's "naturally" exciting. It's just the way motorsport is, you could try to also give leg points, but that diminish more and more the importance of the rally overall classification, which I don't like. Someone who classifies in 5th getting more points than someone who classifies in 3rd...
He probably meant to be still fast at an "old" age, like Alonso is in F1? Which is very probable, if the WRC keeps being a 8-9 cars championship. That is a bigger problem than sunday cruising.Quote:
Originally Posted by ouvreur
Shorter events are not the answer - I don't know why they can't understand this. Events need more freedom. Why not have some finish on a Saturday evening/ night? Or have a proper Sunday with a late afternoon finish.
Just mix it up a bit, instead of the same 'cookie cutter' events year after year......
He's been driving Rally2 anyway in recent times so by your logic he should adopt easily anyway as the hybrid is hardly a game changer in terms of driving dynamics.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
But it was never about adopting the car to him (which the team will do as well as they can because they aren't a bunch of muppets) but if his driving style is similar to Lappis and if he therefore would feel similarly at home in the i20.
Apart from spicing up the MGU, I think its all bs.Quote:
Originally Posted by HKSjbg
This. The current format is just boring. Why not drive till late at night on saturday sometimes and end there.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
There is no way to make any rally exciting when the differences between drivers have become too big, but at least it could spare us another pointless day. The km's they do in 3 or 4 days now could almost always be done in 2. A 100km friday and a 200km saturday.