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The big problem for all who are looking for a WRC seat in 2022 is the new Rally1 cars. Teams wont let them test their car until they've signed for fear of them taking info about it elsewhere.
Picking any of the new cars will be a gamble, but M-Sport have a better reputation than Hyundai in this respect.
Long-term reputation yes, short term I am not so sure.
2006 Focus was clearly fastest
2011 Fiesta seemed also faster than competition
2017 i20 WRC seemed like clearly the fastest car during first half of the season. Fiesta was comparable to others but not not clearly better.
But even this is 4 years ago, and lately MSport had big staff reductions including Loriaux (to Hyundai).
The "new" Fiesta Rally2 (2019) isn't much of a success.
Yes it seems Hyundai didn't let Breen drive the new car yet. But the fact that Neuville and especially Tanak re-signed should be telling that it's not bad so far.
How Puma will be is much harder to guess for Breen.
Loriaux was at M-Sport, but has not been working at the rally program for yearsQuote:
Originally Posted by mknight
He was this year:Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/loria...-hyundai-move/
So basically he knows the Puma (until May) and then went to Hyundai with all that knowledge.Quote:
“In 2020, I carried on developing some ideas for Bentley and worked quite a lot with Chris Williams on the Ford 2022 Rally car.
Not likely MSport will have much of an advantage over Hyundai then.
In 2017 the M-Sport Fiesta WRC won the Driver's & Manu titles and all 3 of their driver's (Ogier, Tanak & Evans) won events in it. The new car won the most rallies that year.
Hyundai with their i20 WRC were well behind in 2nd place in the Manus points and only Neuville was able to win in it.
Neuville lost 2 clear wins with own crashes (Monte, Sweden), and two more likely podiums (Germany, Spain).
Still he had more stagenwins than Ogier and Tanak together.
In either case I wrote first half of the season, there was no competition there. Ogier took 5-ish rallies to develop the car to his (and Tanaks) liking.
No Ogier at MSport to develop it next year.
lol Ogier developed it to Tänaks liking....
its such a shame M-sport didnt get any of the big names...i really wished Ott would sign or Thierry, was actually a little surprised that both stayed
I was sure that Ott would be there, because his time with Hyundai has been very bad, but surely money was talking more...Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
Neuville was at Hyundai already and the 2017 car was designed around him. (Some would say it still is and several other drivers have struggled with it over the years.)Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Ogier had to adapt to the Fiesta from years at VW and developing their 2017 car. He got it to his liking but it was still an adaptable enough car for others to win rallies in it.
It's hard to say that the car was designed around Neuville. Ofcourse he had an advantage vs Ogier going into the Fiesta blind, but Thierry was the last Hyundai driver to test the i20 because he took a while to commit his future to the team in 2016. Abbring, Sordo and Paddon etc all had tests before Hyundai let Neuville drive it. It's not like they designed the car specifically for Neuville when he potentially could've moved away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
The i20 definitely seemed the fastest car in the early part of the season, Neuville just blew two comfortable leads in Monte and Sweden. The fiesta was very good and had a wide operating window, but it wasn't the best car out of the blocks imo.