He signed last year for 3 years more (until the end of 21).
Probably we’ll only know in the next Tanak movie…
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Loeb was on vacation mode this rally in my mind......he and Daniel came to enjoy themselves whatever the result may be....He never got to grips with the car, and IMHO this weekend in Catalunya he didn't seem to be too bothered with his lack of pace. He knows he's already proven himself here some 12 months ago...so he (Quite cleverly) decided to push as much as he could on Friday, and then when he saw he couldn't match the front runners, he decided to take it easy....now both he & Elena are celebrating Neuville's win without much care in the world, rightfully so, knowing they won't go down under.
Dim, I actually wanted to write also that maybe this deal includes MM Motorsport running R5 programme instead of Sainteloc. As you know Katsuta no longer drives R5 cars.
I think this deal is more complicated than we think.
Anyway you look at it, he hasn't been close to delivering the goods this season, and in this rally, he let Ott through just like that,of course Ott was on a mission but even Latvala was into single figures behind him and I reckon another stage and Loeb would have finished 5th...
How do you know Toyota has endless budget, are you really sure they offered Tanak what he deserves?
I mentioned early this year about Japanase mentality and how they work on an honor basis. It could just come down to stubborn Japanese mentality. They expect everyone to be loyal, but obviously the rest of the world does now work this way. I'm not sure the rumor is true or not but I've done business in Japan and they have a very systematic and traditional method of doing business. They even use pen and paper to record things as opposed to computers. As advanced as they are they do some weird things and have some old school traditional beliefs...
People seem to forget that loeb is old, and nobody beats time.
Old people get slower, but more importantly they have problems adjusting to new situations. The older you get, the more difficult it becomes to drive around problems like a bad setup.
I'm sure the 2004 loeb would have won this rally in whatever car available. But the 2019 loeb will only win in a car that fits his driving style perfectly. And apparently the citroen still fits his driving, but the hyundai doesn't.
I suspect that in the right car loeb could still fight for the title.