Time's Up for Latvala...

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Originally Posted by Mintexmemory

At the risk of being boring it's Ford's fault (and M-Sport) that they didn't win the Manufacturers Championship. Just like in F1 it was no contest for the first 5 rounds. Simply the C4 was a far superior car which caused the Ford guys, especially J-M L, to have to overdrive to keep in touch. So just who does the development work over winter? Young Matthew perhaps!
From my observations, I believe (1st hand in Ireland) that Jari-Matti was being told to go flat out to 'panic' the Citroen team. That might explain why he is cut the slack by Malcolm, hard to sack a guy when he's doing what he's told.
It's fair to criticise J-M L for the brain-fade in Poland but Catalunya was never going to be Ford event and for Rally GB the equipment he was given was sub-standard. He also won Sardinia on merit, how many events did Sordo win out of the list of Loeb failures?

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Maybe, but what i mean is that the only thing expected from him now is to beat Sordo on gravel, that should not be to difficult, it mean that he should drive like he did in Finland this year, in my opinion he gets somehow carried away or gets "speed blind" in a way, he overdrive in a position where it is not necessary.
He should support Mikko and take loose points for the manu title, when Mikkos job is to go for the win, now when J-M screws up it puts Mikko in between the rock and the hard place, if he goes flat out and something happens, Ford end up only with memories.

Malcolm W was pretty clear with Petter S in the early days: To finish first, you first have to finish !

Petter was brutally told to get to the finishline, and then when he could do that he could start adding speed.

Maybe he should have followed the same concept with JML. He is one of the few with potential to beat Loeb, but he needs to get smarter in his tactics. Maybe he need a mentor to plan the rallies, and coach him on all rallies, to keep him focused - and not get carried away !

If Solberg was in a works tream he would be winning again and therethore a much better choce for Ford than the showoff JML!

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Originally Posted by Langdale Forest

If Solberg was in a works tream he would be winning again and therethore a much better choce for Ford than the showoff JML!

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some belived the same when mcrae vent to citroen.

But McRea was a world champion,. Latvala is just a showoff.

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Originally Posted by Sulland

Maybe he need a mentor to plan the rallies, and coach him on all rallies, to keep him focused - and not get carried away !

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When J-M came to England, and Pentti started coaching him, he asked once if I know some co-driver for J-M, I suggested that Jouhki should ask Jakke Honkanen if he is interested, I dont know if they did, but anyway they did choose a Brittish guy. The basic idea was that the co-driver would be experienced and while co-drive, also at the same look that the driver dont screw up too much, in a same way Harjanne did for Tommi earlier, that was a good method, and i belive it still is.

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Originally Posted by Langdale Forest

If Solberg was in a works tream he would be winning again and therethore a much better choce for Ford than the showoff JML!

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Petter winning? JML is a showoff?

Heheh, yeah, very amusing stuff you got there. :rolleyes:

All you Petter fans keep on talking... The guy has lost "it". He had a proper C4 in Wales, which is one of his favourite rallies, and he can't even make a one stage win. It's difficult to accept but it's the truth. Or almost the truth.

I've also made an empirical observation that Petter has the most passionate fans. Therefore it's really, I mean really, difficult to discuss with them because for them Petter is a some sort of a godlike figure.

I'm a passionate JML fan, but hell, I don't treat him as a God. JML had a really bad season this year and he can't blame anyone else than himself. The amount of stupid mistakes was almost unbearable. But I still have faith in him. He's got the speed. Now it's time to get the consistency level up. He's a future champion, no question about it. Petter then again... He's a former champion.

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Originally Posted by Juha_Koo

I'm a passionate JML fan, but hell, I don't treat him as a God. JML had a really bad season this year and he can't blame anyone else than himself. The amount of stupid mistakes was almost unbearable. But I still have faith in him. He's got the speed. Now it's time to get the consistency level up. He's a future champion, no question about it. Petter then again... He's a former champion.

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Pretty much for the first time in my life: +1.

Except I wouldn't want to downplay Petter just because he have passionate fans and is perhaps already on the down curve in his career. He's move to start PSWRT shows respectable dedication to the sport and he still have good pace. Can he still win an event? Oh well ... let's not get started again.

Petter is hardly past it. In his first gravel rally in a C4 he did pretty well.
Also remember he was the last world champion other than loeb. With more practice in that car he will be winning rallys again

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Originally Posted by Juha_Koo

All you Petter fans keep on talking... The guy has lost "it". He had a proper C4 in Wales, which is one of his favourite rallies, and he can't even make a one stage win. It's difficult to accept but it's the truth. Or almost the truth.

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I disagree... I consider myself a Petter fan but I don't think that biases my opinion of him. Personally I thought his performance in Wales was pretty good- it was his first gravel rally in the C4 and he was setting approximately the same times as Dani all weekend (with the exception of SS7, where Dani beat him by 20seconds). With proper wipers on that stage, I think 3rd place could've gone either way.

Now I'm not saying Petter is as quick as Seb/Mikko or that he'll win rallies through speed next year (it may be possible, there is not enough evidence either way to draw a solid conclusion). But as Dani has shown, you dont have to be a winner to be a better second driver than JML.

Someday, JML might get more consistent, and then he'll be great. But until then, I think Ford's factory team would be better off with someone who's been proven he can at least keep the car on the road and end up with a solid haul of points (3rd/4th). It just happens that Petter was the only available driver who could do that- Henning is too slow to match Dani or Ogier, and there was no way Ford could have poached those guys from Citroen. There was Chris, of course, but he is also a bit of an unknown.