Of course it is good. It is some start if You want to call it. But it is hardly a bigger deal than Shell & Castrol logos on current cars. That's all I'm saying.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
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Of course it is good. It is some start if You want to call it. But it is hardly a bigger deal than Shell & Castrol logos on current cars. That's all I'm saying.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
The world of sponsorship has changed. Red Bull is an exception to the rule. In this day and age, it is all about 'strategic partnerships' and this is applying to all categories currently, not just WRC.
Also, the lack of Toyota branding is at first strange, until you see the WEC livery too. For Toyota in WEC, the funding comes from the R&D department, not the marketing team. Perhaps this is true of Gazzo Toyota in WRC?
Nope. They bought the phone division, which they have not closed. Nokia still exist separately.Quote:
Originally Posted by RS
The car is painted in the factory Gazoo Racing livery. The decision makers obviously think that that is sufficient advertising for Toyota fans (whom I believe they are aiming to connect with much more than the general public).Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
How is Red Bull an acceptation? If they're sponsoring and plastering their brand all over a car?!
Nice story about Toyota team written by giant Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish):
http://www.hs.fi/urheilu/a1476589796186
The story includes the first published pictures inside the workshop located in Puuppola in central Finland and some actual news as well:
According to Mäkinen...
- one of the drivers will be officially annouced "soon"
- contrary to earlier reports, the third car will debut in Corsica in April (not in Sweden as reported previously)
- the car and the team (presumably with the exception of the driver annouced earlier) will be revealed in Helsinki on December 13.
- four Yaris WRC's has been built so far
- Toyota wants to have a Japanese driver, but that will not happen anytime soon (Tommi says Hiroki Arai and Takamoto Katsuta are "not ready")
The writer of the story was allowed to take pictures of the car, but only from the side - it was forbidden to take any pictures of the front and rear of the car.
How stupid can someone be that hangs in the OFFICIAL teams garage pictures of a rival manufacturer ?
Is this whole joke family business for real ? they are a disgrace to the sport.
"Disgrace to the sport" = having a picture of the ex-world champ team principal driving in the WRC?Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
And yes... Toyota re-entering the WRC is "family business" :p
I think the only joke in this topic is you and your pathetic "input".
Round four for the third car isn't too bad. We should have the 15 'works' WRCs by Portugal all being well.
Citroen will have their 3rd car at round 6 (Portugal), so Toyota is quicker..Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
I expect Citroën to be quicker ;):cool:
It's called "ego", you should know it very well "dear leader".Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
Because it might break the camera lens?Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Hänninen or Ostberg to be named first? I imagine Skoda might not want Lappi to be named with another manufacturer until the season is over.
Toyota Team Finland......
The more I think about it I will admit it's kind of strange having the Lancer photo up there - but okay it's not ultimately going to make or break the WRC programme.
It was explained that Japan had ordered no pictures from front or back, engine and some yet-to-be-homologated roll cage design.Quote:
Originally Posted by RS
I remember reading early into the project how Mäkinen wanted to built up similar team philosophy what he experienced with Mitsubishi. Maybe the poster is up there to remind him and everyone else about that. Though, I hear you, it is weird when placed in current brand-protective time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simmi
Then i suggest that Hanninen brings some posters from his skoda days since he won titles with them for some extra motivation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hartusvuori
Dog amateur team with a free fall to flop ahead.
Hanninen isn´t the boss nor yet officially confirmed.Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
Makinen is not the Boss either. The boss is Toyota and that nobody is being unprofessional towards them to say the least.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
Who the **** you think you are? Seriously. Calling a four-time World Champ a "nobody"? Your input to any topic here is pathetic at best. You're nothing but a joke.Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
N.O.T is omnipotent. He has the power to type things and press "ENTER".Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
N.O.T is N.O.T. He has an acerbic way of saying things sometimes which depending on your viewpoint can be close to the truth. In this case, while I don't agree with his choice of words, I agree that Toyoda is the boss.
Also, my interpretation of him being a nobody is in relation to Makinen not being exactly renowned as a team manager, car builder or team principle. He drove a car some time ago and was successful but that doesn't make him instantly a success in this role. The jury is still out.
I'm not going to waste any more valuable space for that pathetic loser, but as for Mäkinen, he did have somewhat successful run as a team manager/car-builder with N/R4 Subaru's after ending his hall-of-fame-career at the end of 2003.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grundo Farb
So as he's definitely not a renowed WRC team principle (yet), it's not like this would be something completely new for him. Usually companies as big as Toyota don't give their brand and project worth millions to some novice (i.e. without making sure beforehand that this person X has the ability to deal with assignment). Let's wait and see...
I´m pretty sure that when Prodrive was official MINI team, they had Subaru posters in their wall, also when M-Sport was official FORD team they had pictures of MG Metro...
I think Tommi should take Petter instead of Mads ;)
Hänninen confirmed http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/octob...3--12-12-.html
what a shock!
Hänninen/Lindström confirmed for full season 2017.
JUHO HÄNNINEN NAMED AS TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRC DRIVER IN 2017!
Oct 18 2016 - TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is delighted to announce that Finnish driver Juho Hänninen and his co-driver Kaj Lindström will compete in the 2017 FIA World Rally Championship.
http://toyotagazooracing.com/release...c/1018-01.html
Yes! I'm pretty sure they are all concerned at VW headquarters...Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
Really pleased for Juho. I think having been involved with the development of the car from the beginning will make all the difference, vs. sporadic appearances in Fiestas or the works Hyundai.
Very happy for Juho. He deserves. Funny see same type of comments about Juho that we readed about Meeke some time ago.
Hänninen? Are they serious? obviously not. I unfortunately knew that Mäkkinen would make it finnish nationalism over quality.
Pathetic choice!
Who would you have preferred? Why do you think Hanninen is the first of the official names? There are more to come. Maybe surprises.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeD
We are talking about a guy who has posters of himself driving a rival manufacturers car on the OFFICIAL GARAGE OF TOYOTA TEAM, what did you expect ? Garbage dog without an owner playing team manager. He flopped his production cup team and moved on to flop bigger and more official stuff now.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeD
Imagine if you were an owner of a company and the manager you hired has posters of a rival company in your bussines because he was successful with them.
And the Toyota people are worthless enough not to say anything, lets see when this farce flops and laugh.
Without a doubt it has failure written all over it. But Toyota has been a level below pathetic in all kinds of Motorsport in this millennium. It's been failure after failure and giving up all kinds of attempts before they had any chance to succeed. But I guess their WRC project this time will take the price for the most stupid and useless attempt.Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
Please you must be more explicit in your thoughts. Not just throwing words.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeD
Good news for Juho. No surprise, but good news for him.
Per, even the blind must see that there is something wrong with the Toyota team. As people say there's no smoke without a fire and there has been a lot of smoke going from Mäkinen's team. We all saw all kinds of strange things one can imagine somehow happening with the team. I can only hope it won't end in an epic failure but frankly I am not very optimistic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
Anyway fingers crossed for Juho.
Once something´s being said enough many times it becomes a truth. Mirek - you also started to believe before all is settled and done.
Hänninen probably was the best one available for this assignment (2016 testing + 2017 full season). Let's keep in mind that Mäkinen tried to sign Meeke for this role first (atleast it was strongly rumoured), but once he decided to stay at Citroen, Hänninen was the obvious choice.
You don't win the titles Hänninen won (IRC, PWRC, ERC) by accident, so the talent is there. In his WRC drives to date, he's had some quite good (2013 MC, 2014 IT, PL, FI) and some subpar perfomances (2013 FI, 2014 PT, GB), but the "good result" hasn't materialized so far. Let's hope 2017 changes all that.
Let's see what the pace of the Yaris WRC will be... you can say that it looks slow on some videos - it's hard to argue that, but so did the i20 WRC back in late 2013 when the first test videos appeared... I guess we'll have to wait till MC to find out.
For sure Toyota is an underdog for 2017, but if the car is anywhere near its rivals, they're atleast a live dog with Hänninen and Lappi (and whoever the third driver will be).
Name any successful team which managed to change the complete team structure, the team location and the car design during the development phase, which managed to change technical director again after all those changes which took place before. Add to that questionable all-Finn structure, an obvious cult of Tommi's personality, missing top drivers on the market (or missing effort to steal top drivers from other teams) or not very convincing test footage. How can anyone be optimistic about the result is beyond me but I admit I will be very happy to be proven wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper