Silly Season 2022

Sure Msport would've liked Gryazin in their team for WRC2 (+ some testing and 1 or 2 events in rally 1 car), but I guess that looks bleak due to how bad Gryazin feels the Fiesta rally2 is?

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Originally Posted by er88

Sure Msport would've liked Gryazin in their team for WRC2 (+ some testing and 1 or 2 events in rally 1 car), but I guess that looks bleak due to how bad Gryazin feels the Fiesta rally2 is?

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They should get Mikkelsen, most Rally1, but also testing, development, and some rallies in the Rally2.
An investment in the future for M-sport.
Half-ass drivers can't develop a car to it's best.

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Originally Posted by skarderud

They should get Mikkelsen, most Rally1, but also testing, development, and some rallies in the Rally2.
An investment in the future for M-sport.
Half-ass drivers can't develop a car to it's best.

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There is no correlation between driver's speed and their ability to develop a car. Some of the best test drivers never achieved anything on world level (Philippe Bugalski, Mark Higgins, Bryan Bouffier, Roman Kresta) while some top WRC drivers haven't understood their cars at all.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

There is no correlation between driver's speed and their ability to develop a car. Some of the best test drivers never achieved anything on world level (Philippe Bugalski, Mark Higgins, Bryan Bouffier, Roman Kresta) while some top WRC drivers haven't understood their cars at all.

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Reminds me of plenty of Japanese motorcycle testers, who were fabulous with testing, and feedback; but when getting wild card entries to race, they weren't fast. It can be a special skill, which not all can do.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

There is no correlation between driver's speed and their ability to develop a car. Some of the best test drivers never achieved anything on world level (Philippe Bugalski, Mark Higgins, Bryan Bouffier, Roman Kresta) while some top WRC drivers haven't understood their cars at all.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

Reminds me of plenty of Japanese motorcycle testers, who were fabulous with testing, and feedback; but when getting wild card entries to race, they weren't fast. It can be a special skill, which not all can do.

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And how many F1 teams over the years have had a midfield driver who could get the set-up right for the star driver to be a winner but when the midfielder left the star was nowhere.

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Originally Posted by Steve Boyd

And how many F1 teams over the years have had a midfield driver who could get the set-up right for the star driver to be a winner but when the midfielder left the star was nowhere.

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Luca Badoer comes to my mind first who was the main test driver for many years.

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Originally Posted by cali

Luca Badoer comes to my mind first who was the main test driver for many years.

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Also de la Rosa for McLaren from the mid to end-2000s.

On the rallying side, Lasse Lampi for Ralliart or Pasi Hagström for Subaru are also good examples I think.

Jorge Recalde used to do testing for Lancia. Lampi also worked for Audi in group B days. Sebastian Lindholm did lots of testing for Peugeot in the 00's.

We should mention Pentti Airikkala on that list for rally as well. He was active on this forum before he passed and was known for setting cars up well and coaching drivers. He only won 1 WRC event but was often in the background testing, doing setups or coaching.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a.../26/obituaries

https://www.fairfieldmotorsport.com/...a1945-2009.htm

As we can see Mirek's claim holds water very tightly :)

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