Please Mikko, something different this time!! (an open letter)

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Originally Posted by noel157

Hypothetically Tanak would be an excellent choice.

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Tanak had his chance... how he must prove himself once more if he wants another.

Mikko is quite fast and he is "point collector". It isn´t bad and each team needs such man. BUT...Few years ago he was that guy who was veery near to beat Loeb and now he isn´t that type of guy. I don´t think it will change during the season.

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Originally Posted by N.O.T

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Originally Posted by noel157

Hypothetically Tanak would be an excellent choice.

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Tanak had his chance... how he must prove himself once more if he wants another.

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Greg just imagine if Latvala,Neuville,Ogier had 1 year chance only.
1 year is just not enough, if you want to see the true potential of a new driver imho.
Of course these years there are not factories that they will support such a programm,except if you have deep pockets.

Difficult to say with only one season if Tanak is the next Ogier or the next Novikov.

To me, it all started with SS8 and 9 of 2009 Wales Rally in a straight fight against Loeb for the title.
He blamed the car for losing 22 sec before Wilson Sr publicly said after service nothing was wrong.
He had the title in his driving.
It was tantalizing and failing at it put him down for a whole year. He actually never recovered despite an excellent 2011 season and a decent 2012 but something was broken.
The massive crash in Finland 10 just piled to that before Ogier took over.

Hirvonen is now cruising for a living.
He manages to maintain a certain level of speed which should ensure him a paid seat and/or attract sponsors.

In his book and interviews, Loeb has more compliments to Hirvonen than any other title contender he had.

If he was able to keep Ogier under pressure like he was able with Loeb, I'm not sur that Seb 2 will resists.

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Originally Posted by dimviii

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Originally Posted by N.O.T

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Originally Posted by noel157

Hypothetically Tanak would be an excellent choice.

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Tanak had his chance... how he must prove himself once more if he wants another.

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Greg just imagine if Latvala,Neuville,Ogier had 1 year chance only.
1 year is just not enough, if you want to see the true potential of a new driver imho.
Of course these years there are not factories that they will support such a programm,except if you have deep pockets.

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I agree with that... but all the drivers you mentioned spent a lot of money (or their sponsors) before going to factory cars... if you do not have enough like Tanak then you have to make the best out of everything you get.

I do believe that Tanak, Novikov, Aava had the ability to win stages and rallies in due time but they needed a lot of time and money to do so.

Only Ogier showed that he has the appropriate tools early in his WRC days to be champion.

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Originally Posted by COD

My point was, at the time he was with Subaru, he was crap. And at THAT time, there were a lot more talented who should have gotten the Ford seAt instead of Mikko. Mikko got it and those others were forgotten, that is why There was only Loed and Mikko was the best of the rest. Had it gone other way, there might have been somebody other that Grönholm who could have challenged Loeb on speed.

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I think one of the reasons he got the 2006 Ford seat are very strong performances with a privateer programme in a Ford in 2005. And I think he deserved the seat, since it was a 2nd seat alongside the 2nd best driver of the decade. Once Gronholm went into retirement, Mikko was fast enough to lead the team. Unfortunately for Ford, I am pretty sure there wasn't a man who would challenge Loeb better at that time than Mikko.

Anyway I expected more from him in Sweden, but at least he proved there is still some speed. But I am afraid, as much as I like Mikko as a character, his best days as a professional rally driver are definitely behind him.

hirvonen is a very likeable driver

but very sorry to say that he will never win an event and will not be anymore than a 2nd possibly 3rd driver inn a team

he has never been fast and I wonder how long it will take before wilson comes out of the hirvonen dream

As said before: not fast? What is fast. Have you seen Mikko in reality on stages? If you compare to the others he´s one of the fastest. Not the fastest. But still.

So who will replace him at Ford? Which drivers has competence? Mikko still top5 driver in WRC.