Of course, she's a well known tv presenter for German TV.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Was having a go at the ironical timing of the tweet (and her antics at the rally in Catalunya)
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Of course, she's a well known tv presenter for German TV.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Was having a go at the ironical timing of the tweet (and her antics at the rally in Catalunya)
They may be promoting it next year, but Extreme E will only start in 2021 with a handful of events that are looking to be a sort of TV reality show rather than proper racing. Apparently it fits on Ogier retirement plans...Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Btw, it’s disgusting the way Todt and his friends from the politics are selling the industry to the electric lobby. It worth take a look on how Formula E was created: https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/...born-in-paris/
Basically: the French midget and the then European Commission VP Tajani pushed Agag, a spanish smart ass that learned a few tricks with Briatore and got all sort of connections from his father-in-law (spain’s former PM Aznar) to start FE, which was destined to be a failure untill Dieselgate arrived…now they’re releasing this Extreme crap and they won’t rest ruining motorsport untill EV’s bubble burst (hopefully, sooner than later).
If Ogier is interested in entering Extreme-E which starts in 2021 then it seems to confirm 2020 will be his last year in WRC.
Toyota (and rally fans) must hope wunderkid Rovanpera becomes the top pilot to replace him and be able to fight for the WDC.
I don't really fear for Toyota. I do fear for Rovanpera. The overhype might not be good for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
This year everyone was expecting him to easily collect WRC2pro. then he crashed in all 3 first rallies and won it only with big help of extremely limited number of entrants and repeating C3 R5 problems. Leave him alone for a year or two, like Ogier when he started in Citroen. The kind of miracle start Loeb had is extremely rare.
Sooooo, Ogier leaves Citroen 2 times within 10 years, hmmmmm. Well different reason now anyway.
With Toyota in his hands, he may reconsider.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
Citroen was essentially a one driver team for almost a decade. What you are seeing now is in large part, due to that. Not entirely dissimilar to Mitsubishi in the mid/late 1990s, its just that this lasted a lot longer.
Maybe.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Nothing could be worse than that.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
No.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Citroen just screwed up their driver lineup since loeb retired.Quote:
Originally Posted by RAS007
They had golden talent ogier and chased him away. They had neuville and chased him away. They had meeke and fired him. They had the chance to hire ogier back in 2016 but didn't even bother.
They even chased away loeb after 20 years of loyal service.
There just seems to be nobody in that team with an eye for talent and a long term plan.
In mid 2018 when he was hired Lappi was clearly the most promising new driver in WRC.
It's just that 2019 has been a bit of a disaster for him. Especially the start.
I should say most of the disasters for Lappi was the Citroen.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
MSport should know that. Maybe Ostberg instead of Paddon in Ford should make them a good team. (Lappi, Latvala, Ostberg)
M-Sport does not operate solely in order "to have a good team". Hiring Ogier was an investment to win titles and it paid off. Those three wouldn't cut it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
I believe they are aiming at having another "Evans", clearly they can't expect from anyone whoever end up with to win the titles, bit a few wins or podiums. Why not, just to showcase that the car is still competitive and for "free".
We have Mikkelsen, Latvala, Meeke, Lappi, Ostberg and Paddon available and one of them will be glad to except it for free, just to drive and stay sharp.
If the pressure will now fall to Suninen, who knows maybe he could deliver, but I'm more sure that he will not since he is not that good at setup the car and needs a "mentor".
We will see. I just hope that Greensmith won't "steal" a precious permanent second seat. I would degredate him to lower class to find extra experience.
Assuming Ogier is Toyota bound and money doesn't come into it, who should M-Sport choose to partner Suninen in 2020?
I can't decide, from the long list of availables, who's best.
The point score of 2019 says Mikkelsen.Quote:
Originally Posted by T16
If it was me making the decision, it would be Lappi.
In my opinion, he has the most potential and is the youngest with the longest possible career ahead of him.
Meeke, Ostberg, Mikkelsen, Latvala and Paddon have been in the game a long time and are known quantities now. Lappi is still a bit of a mystery but there have been some good glimpses of his potential.
As long as they sign at least one (hopefully two) of; Mikkelsen, Meeke, Latvala, Lappi, Paddon etc then I don't care who it is lolQuote:
Originally Posted by T16
Lappi probably makes most sense for a team like Msport though (youngest and could make them money in the future if he fulfills his potential).
Question is, which drivers will be that arrogant enough to not "not" want to pay to have a seat at M-Sport?
Greensmith, gryazin, Loubet, ...Quote:
Originally Posted by T16
Whoever might seem good enough to make Malcolm some profit later but has the money now to not make him lose too much.
Gryazin is fast, but should try to keep the car on road more.. Crashing WRC is way more expensive than R5's..
Fact is most can't pay for a full season - £200 000 an event or something like that?Quote:
Originally Posted by GigiGalliNo1
After all these years Jari is rich enough to be able to finance events out of his own pocket, but does he want to do more than 1/2 events that way?
Mikkelsen used to be the rich kid who had it all, but his daddies money dried up ages ago, and he had to come back to the WRC the long way and with a management team behind him.
Msport should be able to run at least one more driver without demanding money, to replace Evans
I don't think Latvala's too keen on spending his hard-earned money on financing some WRC events, especially as there seems to be quite little to gain. And Jouhki most likely is not willing to do it either.Quote:
Originally Posted by er88
Exactly. But I doubt anyone will drive out from own pocket, it would be financed by sponsors. Someone like Latvala has so much of PR value that it should be relativel easy for him or Jouhki to get some sponsors. It's a different thing whether they have too much pride to do it that way again.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
As much as I tend to agree with people saying that kale should have a year of "4th car" with no pressure to learn, on the other hand he also now has the opportunity to do a full season beside Ogier, under pressure. I think that is a good learning option too.
Tanak is the first one to say that his season beside Ogier was extremely valuable.
Dont think the money of papa Mikkelsen dried up, but Andreas was told to start learning standing on his own in the bussiness world.Quote:
Originally Posted by er88
If Toyota does not get anyone else than Ogier, Evans and Rovanpera and if MSport only aims for one drvier besides Suninen and Greensmith it's really the worst case scenario for driver seats.
In that case I think it's between Mikkelsen and Lappi with Latvala a bit distant third option.
Mikkelsen is a known stable fast driver (compared to all others left) with still some future potential. He is 2 years younger than Tanak (at this point in 2017 Tanak only won 2 rallies for example), 4 years younger than Latvala, 1,5 year younger than Evans (with about same number of starts with WRC car) and only 1,5 year older than Lappi.
Lappi has much fewer WRC starts so he can be seen as having more potential for the future. On the other hand he has been quite unstable both in Citroen and also most of 2018 with Toyota. A big potential issue might be his management who doesn't want to "pay", so Malcolms business model might be an issue.
Altogether it's not an easy pick between these two and many details that we might never know about can decide the outcome.
Latvala is a distant third cause he is not stable and lately fast only on very few rallies. Since he is the driver with most starts in WRC ever and also older than others his potential for future development is pretty much exhausted. A big pluss might be Joukhis long business relationship with Malcolm though. In case MSport gets two new drivers it's quite likely Latvala might be one of them.
The others are imo out of the picture:
Breen and Paddon were free last year with much better recent record than this year and were seemingly completely ignored by MSport. Paddon has started at least 2 Hyundai-related projects in NZ so I don't see him suddenly leaving to drive for free at MSport. Breen is very likely to be offered WRC2 season at Hyundai.
Meeke is 10 and 11 years older than Mikkelsen and Lappi with basically no future potential and has been ignored by Malcolm multiple times before. Furthermore his crashing/car damage tendency would just not work at MSport that want to earn money.
Many of you are ready to accept Greensmith as 3rd driver but not Kalle as 3rd driver.
Weird!
2017 Lappi was 3rd TGR driver without any WRC-car starts before that, do you think Kalle is much slower than Lappi was in 2017 ?
It's a different business model, m-sport are more geared at making money, Toyota don't need their rally program to make money, they just want titles. 2017 was a year when they weren't expected to perform, so less pressure in running a young driver without previous top category experience, but to answer your question, no I don't believe Kalle will be much slower than Lappi was in 2017.Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
According to Makinen Kalle was faster than Lappi back in 2016 - when they both tested the Yaris :D!!Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
However that's not the point really, people are just accepting Greensmith will be in one of the 2 or 3 msport cars because he is paying for it. Plus, Msport aren't fighting for anything.
Toyota on the other hand will be fighting for both titles (or will be trying to).
I don't think anyone is trying to knock Kalle by saying running him in a 4th car would be better for him and Toyota next season. He's a super talent but will still be raw and learning from mistakes
Greensmith is paying (and is not without any talent) and Msport is a business, thats the reality and while we might not like it we can't really change it. This year it was shown clearly by Msport choosing Greensmith over other potential drivers in Finland and Germany.Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
2017 was "learning year" for Tommi when they only had to show some potential and improvement for the Toyota bosses to be satisfied. Furthermore there were no drivers available until very late after VW left and nobody could be sure how fast Toyota was. (Ogier turned them down)
Now Toyota is one of the two fastest cars, maybe even the fastest, and just got tasked by Toyoda to win both championships. Relying on an 18 year old that never drove a WRC to do that seems rather risky.
Thing is if you take Lappi's results and form from 2017 as a rule it would place him as last WRC this year. Lappi had great start with 4th in Italy and then winning Finland after Latvala's ECU issues and multiple crashes from other top runners. After that reality settled in and he was way behind and making mistakes rest of the season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Norm75
Lappi didn't even drive the whole season back then in 2017. Kale will if he will be 3rd driver (Makinen don't want to share cars). Toyota didn't expect something big back then. They had one fast and experienced driver, one test guy and a learning boy. After few good results they lift their goals and sign promising Tanak and straight away lift their goals even higher after winning manufacturer title in their second year and driver title in their 3rd. Now it's quite pressure there to instant deliver results, so Kale will be under pressure and not trying to drive his own race to gain experience. What if one or two of other guys hit the trouble. I mean whatever as long as Katsuta don't get permanent seat instead of bunch of available guys.
https://www.hs.fi/urheilu/art-2000006316294.html
Ari Pusa, long-time Finnish journalist and author of the now postponed Mäkinen autobiography, writes that according to his sources Lappi is indeed on his way to M-Sport for 2020.
The story also claims that Toyota actually exercised the buy-out clause in Ogier's contract.
It also says that Citroen will continue paying Lappi's salary at MSport. In that case it's quite easy to choose him for MSport considering their business model.
So the remaining questions would be
- will Toyota get some other experiened driver as 3rd car while Rovanpera drives 4th
- will MSport get some other driver than Greensmith (and possibly run Greensmith on a few rallies on his own budget)
this had to be done (not mine)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJ6iNQDX...g&name=900x900
Quite many errors in the article.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
- Citroen should pay fine for quitting WRC before 2022 (Timo Rautiainen just said in another interview that you only need to commit to one year at a time)
- Lorenzo Bertelli looking for a factory seat (he has his own car)
- WRC2 could be the main class in 2022 (hybrid rules have been agreed)
- ERC is attractive to private manufacturers (what are these?)
Yep, I noticed the same. Rautiainen didn't sound like he was 100% sure about the "quitting penalty" though.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
https://www.iltalehti.fi/ralli/a/f51...4-97df930b4844
The latest from Don Timo Jouhki. To quote a former Finnish rally driver, there's "nothing special", but anyway. It's not really a surprise that Jouhki says that for Latvala "things don't look that good". Jouhki doubts Lappi would just walk in to M-Sport like that, but then again it's not actually any of his business. Jouhki believes that Meeke "won't do anything (in 2020)" and Breen will continue with Hyundai (few rallies with WRC + R5 development).
I think the most interesting part was that according to Jouhki "it's quite obvious it's either Jari-Matti or Meeke, who does not get anything from Toyota - atleast more than few rallies". Could it be that there's still room in the occasional fourth car in rallies Katsuta doesn't do?
They could keep both of them, share third car, Kale and Katsuta share 4th. Simple.
its Kalle* man
Kale is this dude
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/02...g?v=1512322042