Silly Season 2022

Good points Antti.
One has to remember the times as the were then.
It´s always easier looking in the mirror.

It's also always easy to say "ah, I never wanted him anyway" when he's already signed for another team :laugh:

Incidentally, Ogier's first Fiesta test wasn't at Greystoke. Probably just as well, the story goes that after a couple of months running the mule around there, the roads were like driving on the moon...

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

....and maybe they felt Latvala is better for communicating in the Finnish team.

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Back to the start.
Driver picks at Toyota:
1. Japanese
2. Finnish
3. rest

Definitely like this in 2016/17 and seems the same in 2021/2022. (Latvala didn't appear to be interested in for example Breen at all. Already in Portugal it was all about Lappi).

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Originally Posted by mknight

(Latvala didn't appear to be interested in for example Breen at all. Already in Portugal it was all about Lappi).

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One of them has won a WRC event and one has not

Edmonson as codriver for Oliver Solberg at monza.

Sent fra min SM-G950F via Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by skarderud

Edmonson as codriver for Oliver Solberg at monza.

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Question remains...who co-drives for Mikkelsen and Greensmith?

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

You have to remember the talks at the time, everyone thought Toyota was just a village team and the car would hardly match R5's. Meanwhile M-Sport was known already for making the best cars when new regulations arrive. And Latvala has also said he made big changes to the car when he joined the team, to make it a winning car like it was in 2017.

It's also worth remembering that Toyota didn't aim for wins or titles in 2017 and they didn't expect to be so competitive. It would have been embarrassing for them to have Ogier struggle in their car, (kind of like Citroen in 2019). Meanwhile they were just looking for someone to develop the car and build up the action towards following years, and maybe they felt Latvala is better for communicating in the Finnish team.

But like always, we might never know.

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Good points. Here is the video of Ogier testing the Yaris in 2017. At that time we discussed here how disappointing the car appearance was and even in the hindsight of today it still looks very raw and unconvincing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-WyZkZNmKs

https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2021/wrc...season-finale/

Adding fuel to the fire of Huttunen possibly driving an M-Sport car next year.

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2021/wrc...season-finale/

Adding fuel to the fire of Huttunen possibly driving an M-Sport car next year.

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Probably the best option as long as they don’t reach an agreement with Mikkelsen.
The «*swap*» Huttunen-Suninen may sound strange at the first place but in the end, probably the best for all: Huttunen was not really trusted at Hyundai and has some speed, he has the profil for M-Sport; Suninen was in a really difficult situation this season at M-Sport and Hyundai needs a top RC2 driver.
Sometimes, it is enough to give the push to launch again a career.


Good for Edmondson if he obtains a job in WRC with Solberg; his stint with Mikkelsen has proven he was not the issue about Greensmith. A little more surprised by the Greensmith-Andersson association but let’s see.

Yes it seems like a good 'swap' for both Suninen and Huttunen.

I thought Huttunen was a future champion since his days in ERC Junior with the Opel Team and maybe M.Wilson will still see this as a possibility. Jari wont find a better option for fulfilling his potential.