Technical problems can still ruin it for Neuville, even if he makes no mistakes.
And if Neuville has 2 disaster rallies for whatever reason, Ogier is back in it, he's 12 points behind Tanak and faster on asphalt. No big chance, but it's there.
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Technical problems can still ruin it for Neuville, even if he makes no mistakes.
And if Neuville has 2 disaster rallies for whatever reason, Ogier is back in it, he's 12 points behind Tanak and faster on asphalt. No big chance, but it's there.
You can't be seriously comparing Meeke beating 4th level drivers in Portugal with Paddon beating 2nd level drivers in ERC?
Paddons achievement is on another level than Meeke, yet the WRC2 competition is a level above again.
Perhaps it's the drivers more than which car they're in that's leading to the (i20) Championship victories ? There really isnt very much between the Rally2 cars and the driver usually makes the biggest difference.
I'm sure that's part of it. But there are a couple of things that strike me...
In an interview during rally Silesia, Paddon specifically talked about how they'd had trouble with the car for the last couple of years until about halfway through this season when they finally got it sorted. He wouldn't say what they changed specifically, just that they finally got all the bits to work together. He later talked about "a season of two halves" and things along those lines.
Also, as somebody pointed out during ERC Ceredigion, he won every proper stage on Saturday except SS3 which he lost to... ...another Hyundai i20 N. The other i20 was driven by James Williams, his teammate.
Yes he and his team definitely found something before Ceredigion. They did some testing in Spain and there was even a rumour of a big engine upgrade.
But even before that he was still pretty competitive in the i20... and Williams didnt have the changes on his car, but was still very fast (on his home stage).
There is clearly pace in the car, especially on tarmac, but just on one surface isnt good enough...
So....Next years' numbers on the cars: #1, #8 & #16 ;)
Or 1, 11 and 16