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Well, he actually beats ogier on pure speed, Australia comes to mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
Hyundai was crap, not even master Loeb chould handle that piece of shit.
Why Mikkelsen didn't win in the Hyundai is quite obviuos, isn't it?
Mikkelsen and Fourmaux is a good pairing that can do top results if the car is top notch.
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And still Neuville and Tänak are winning rallies with i20. Also Mikkelsen's WRC2 campaign isn't very promising so far and far from dominationQuote:
Originally Posted by skarderud
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A piece of crap car that won 2 manufacturer titles. The problem of Hyundai is reliability, not speed. And Mikkelsen never showed speed on a Hyundai.Quote:
Originally Posted by skarderud
Just because he beat Ogier once or twice on speed in VW days, doesn't mean he's faster than him.
Mikkelsen is not world champion material. We'll see if he'll even manage to win WRC2 title or ERC.
He had 3yrs at VW (with little competition to VW in the championship compared to when the 2017 cars were introduced), and ONLY managed to beat Seb Ogier to a rally win once on pure speed? Ogier also spent a year running 1st on the road for TWO days iirc.Quote:
Originally Posted by skarderud
He spent two years at Hyundai and didn't win a rally, and couldn't get near Neuville in general speed, or across a whole championship.
And as has been said, he was meant to use this year to dominate every rally he entered and prove he is a cut above the likes of Breen/ Ostberg/ Lappi/ Gryazin/ Solberg/ Luky etc etc, but so far hasn't had great results or great speed. Certainly been half a year that hasn't enhanced his reputation.
To win the championship you need to have a similar speed to the big 4 across a whole year, and be clever/not make more than 1 or 2 mistakes. There's no evidence to suggest Mikkelsen is at that level.
However having said all that, I still think behind Lappi, Mikkelsen is the next best option for Msport and they should sign him. Especially if he can also bring some budget. If the Msport car is really good, Mikkelsen could challenge for podiums and hopefully fight for wins on a few events, and he would do a vastly better job compared to Greensmith anyway. Msport should have two seats available next to Fourmaux, let Greensmith pay for a 4th car. Hard to read what Malcolm will do though.
A Mikelssen-Formaux-Greensmith lineup for all rounds would be an upgrade on what MSport have this year IMO.
Sure. Just that someone with norwegian glasses has been twisting the facts quite heavily here.Quote:
Originally Posted by RS
He still remains an option for M-Sport but recent performances and results are quite worrysome. Also it's quite funny that people bring up some decade old results as this would be very relevant today.
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Regarding Mikkelsen there are good arguments brought up and it's correct to say he has never been in the fight for a title and his current WRC2 performances are not exactly helping him show his superiority. Regarding his stint at VW he was going up against a top performing Ogier and was gradually getting closer, in 2016 he beat Latvala. His Hyundai stint was not great but he was one in a long list of drivers that have struggled to get the best out of that car, even Tanak sometimes had rallies where he couldn't extract the speed. However i think the point still stands that out of what is available he has the best potential to fight for a title and that adding him to the lineup would be a big improvement for MSport.
As M-Sport fan i would prefer Lappi / Fourmaux / Greensmith. As rally fan i would prefer Meeke / Mikkelsen / Fourmaux.
https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/f...pment/6630154/
As we heard before, they helped with the development but at least for the moment, there's no word on full time return.
"Ford has stepped up its support of M-Sport’s World Rally Championship programme through the development of the all-new 2022 hybrid Puma, according to Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook."
"The blue oval’s interest in WRC has heightened following the introduction of new hybrid Rally1 regulations in 2022, which has resulted in more input into M-Sport’s plans for rallying’s new era.
Last week M-Sport became the first team to officially launch its new Rally1 weapon with the unveiling of its all-new Puma at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The launch signified Ford’s renewed interest in the sport with its global CEO Jim Farley and Rushbrook in attendance.
Speaking to Autosport, Rushbrook confirmed that Ford has been heavily involved in the development of the Puma, with its engineers assisting with its knowledge of hybrid technology and aerodynamics.
“Certainly we have increased our support with the development of the new car and being as engaged as we are,” Rushbrook told Autosport.
“M-Sport are great partners and always have been. Like we do in any form of motorsport we try to complement each other with our partners.
“M-Sport has always been very good at developing new cars and we expect the same with this case.
“But with the new technology with hybrid we are able to bring in some of our calibration engineers to help with the software strategy, and also aerodynamics and vehicle dynamics simulation are other areas we can contribute to the new car, and we have always had a good relationship on the powertrain and all of that continues.”
M-Sport has been effectively running a semi-works effort in the WRC since 2013 with Ford an active partner and sponsor, but the operation is not a full factory effort compared to rivals Toyota and Hyundai."
"ushbrook admitted that the WRC’s new future has piqued interest at Ford but stopped short of saying that the brand would return as a full factory team in the near future.
“Absolutely [we are excited], we participate in the FIA technical working groups and we were part of that in terms of developing these new regulations along with the other manufactures,” he said.
“We think it is an exciting change for the sport and we expect the fans to be engaged with it as well as they start to see the performance and the technology in the cars.
When asked if there was chance Ford could return as a full works effort, he added: “That is probably not something I would comment on.”
Rushbrook also confirmed that the decision to switch from the Fiesta body to the Puma was down to Ford and its strategy to promote its new product through the WRC.
The development car had been running a Fiesta shell during M-Sport’s recent tests of its 2022 machine earlier this year.
“It [the Ford Puma] is a new product for us and an important part of the future cycle plan and we wanted to showcase that especially with the hybrid technology,” said Rushbrook.
The new Puma made its full public debut last weekend with M-Sport’s current WRC driver Adrien Fourmaux and test driver Matthew Wilson completing demonstration runs up the Goodwood hillclimb course."
Sounds like the same old PR talk. "Ford is supporting us so much"...but 2/3 of our drivers pay for the drive, the last doesn't get a salary and we never even use all testdays.
All the talk whether Lappi or Mikkelsen is better choice becomes pointless if they keep going with similar setup as this year.
Again this year has shown it's hard to tell how good the current drivers really are when there is nobody to compare with.
Did Greensmith really improve from Croatia on or is it "just" the new engine? How good is Fourmaux? Wilson claims the car is podium fast (and therefore drivers are the problem). Last year there was Lappi for some comparison, this year there is nobody as Suninen is anything but stable.
I'd guess that one of the reasons nobody of the "top 4" signed with MSport is that they aren't really sure what level they are. (new car, new possibilities yes, but you still need technical skill level within the team, Louriaux leaving prbly didn't help).