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Ohh and the super special was rubbish, good spectacle and lots of people, but it had a gravel covered tarmac section, which swept towards the end, and they sent groups of 5 cars out at a time to tackle it twice. So the last group (including Tanak, Neuville and Ogier) got much cleaner conditions, allowing them to go quite a bit faster. At the least they should have run it in rally order! But I guess that's rallying?
Now the Fiestas shows all the problems Mads had during the season. But most of the forum only thought he had excuses for slower times.
Even though Mikkelsen won last year, I was surprised by his pace. Also a big surprise from Meeke, nice to see the Citroens doing well. The hugest disappointment was from Paddon. He should have shown pace here in his almost home event with a good starting position. Not to mention the lack of pace in Wales and crashes in Finland and Sardegna...not much to prove why he should have a full season next year.
Agreed. Look how much better Neuville has done with a worse road position.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
The Fiesta had been the strongest car all year so cant really complain. Plus any problems havent done them that much harm given the two titles, podiums on every rally and all drivers winning an event.Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
Does Paddon's car have exactly the same parts as Neuville's and Mikkelsen's? (or was there only enough new parts for Neuville and Mikkelsen to use and spares at the service are?
What is Paddon's car weigh with crew compared to his team mates. I would suspect the jumbo co-driver gives a slight power to weight ratio disadvantage in some conditions. (How much does Marshall weigh compared Kennard?) Are there any little persom brit co-drivers available for a try out?
I think Mads has had more problems than the M-Sport guys because ever since he bought the car, he has been developing it in his own direction, without any support from the team or the factory.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
The Fiesta problems in Australia are aero and tyre as far as I can see. Just because they are 40 seconds adrift here (only 40, NOT 2 mins) does not mean that Ostberg's issues were anything other than poor preparation and loss of mojo.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
Exactly the reason Henning had to get Ilka as co-driver (it was that or Weight Watchers!) - Seb M is not much different to Kennard in build - I doubt he's more than 165 llbsQuote:
Originally Posted by Zeakiwi
Suffering from selective memory, Mintex? During 2016 Meeke and Citroen were pretty happy with the C3 development, showing high expectations for 2017. The problems, and the complains, only came after season started.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mintexmemory
Prior to ’16 WRGB, Meeke even said he was living a dream: “A year like this is what I’ve always wanted. It’s been the chance to develop a car with a world-beating manufacturer like Citroën from scratch – the chance to build a team around myself and put us both into the best possible position to challenge for the championship. It’s been an absolute privilege to work with the team. It’s been brilliant.” https://www.msauk.org/Meeke-targetin...n-DS3-swansong
In December, at the C3 presentation, Matton hugely praised Meeke’s work in the car development and the Brit was confident about the car potential: http://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/decem...5--12-12-.html
It’s quite clear that the car issues were a team failure; therefore all people involved on the C3 development, including Meeke, are responsible for it. Now, we can only hope they will be strong enough to react and find ways to make the C3 a title contender. Honestly, I believe they will and, apparently, they’re already showing they can do it.
Btw, nice show from Mikkelsen today. Still a long way to go, but having another different rally winner this year would be remarkable.
All the cars have the same spec, apart from the new rear bumper/fender which has been on Neuville's car only since Wales.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeakiwi
Keep in mind these cars carry ballast to be brought up to the minimum weight anyway, and the occupants weights are rather central which is not too bad. The difference in weight among all the crews (driver+codriver) is much less than you might expect.
Not that surprised at the overall results so far.
Mikkelsen and Meeke had road position advantage and no big issues while all others had either one or both of them. Seemingly C3 works on dry gravel now, good.
Points:
- Lefevbre under real pressure now with Meeke doing good and Breen also very good considering he never drove here before
- Paddon relative to Mikkelsen/Neuville quite bad
- Ford, what a difference from "win all" in Wales
- Toyota still has issues with both speed and reliability
Lefebvre's doing pretty well, without the two punctures he'd be up there with Ogier and Paddon
Michelin video Leg 1
https://youtu.be/UMvjdQncGso
Meeke was lucky at his off
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC_EG8a35F0
However he had plenty of technical issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mintexmemory
Well did you expect them to say ' the car is crap and it looks like we're going round in circles. PR is often divorced from reality!Quote:
Originally Posted by Rally Power
Well to back you up, Meeke was pushing for changes to the car for months (even before the season started), but Matton only finally listened after Andreas' feedback and trouble in the car too. Every driver has said the same things anyway. Good to see it's finally improved at the back end of the seasonQuote:
Originally Posted by Mintexmemory
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Breen doing well, but also remember Citroen/Meeke did not do Rally Australia last year, and alot of the stage are different, so first time doing these stages for Meeke also.
Excellent job by Mikkelsen. Makes you wonder what he and Hyundai could've achieved if they'd done the sensible thing and brought him in at the start of the year ... :rolleyes:
You have to wonder how the bromance between Mikkelsen and Neuville will develop next year, as for sure they will both have a go at the title, and they are on the same level...Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
good point,i had forgot it.Quote:
Originally Posted by wrc2017
Before the start of the season he was not an obvious choice for Hyundai, given that they had 3 drivers under contract and Paddon had about same speed as Mikkelsen on gravel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
If you mean after the test in Portugal, then signing him could have made them win manu champs. But it's easy to be clever about it now. It didn't look like a bad choice at first either, Paddon was in the lead in Sardinia before crashing and ended 2nd in Poland.
There’s no record of Meeke complaining before MC, on the contrary. After Sweden it was pretty clear the WHOLE team was completely lost about the car issues and Meeke started getting vocal, while Matton stated that during development tests drivers didn’t report any major issue. Apparently, confidence was mutually broken.Quote:
Originally Posted by er88
More than excusing or blaming Meeke, what matters now, once the team kept all drivers and has a new tech chief, it’s to look ahead and hope for a fast and successful evolution of the C3. Citroen needs to be able to fight for the title. Fingers crossed.
Yeah. Mikkelsen with Hyundai it's a because Paddon get worseQuote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Wel we wil find out next year, but for this rally lets not forget he has Had a better road position for day one.Quote:
Originally Posted by spiderem
If there really good friends, it could.benefit them both. Neuville had to do it on his one this year, teammates werent there to take away points very often.
gonna be intereting if it is like this
https://image.prntscr.com/image/PTMM...2IRIJExBCA.png
One question I don't understand. Right now I'm watching service live on official site and why the hell only Ogier's car is in?? Why don't everyone start working on cars at the same time?
all rally cars have each specific start time. Ogier car in service at 3 min before Paddon and he 3 min before Tanak. Citroens service now waiting for Meeke and Breen who service time starts 18 and 9 min after OgierQuote:
Originally Posted by ESTR
Because of the times marked on the time card....every rally, national, or international...you have to be there on time, not before and not later.
It’s definitely soft tyres today. It’s wet! �� #rallyaustralia #wrc
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DO28TmAUEAAfyCb.jpg
https://twitter.com/RallySportMag/st...07767311200256
While all agreed car was performing well on the roads selected by test engineers, they were not representative of the rally conditions. The selected roads that worked to the strengths or the car.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rally Power
RallySport Mag are well prepared... not going to get stuck in the MAN..Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
Waiting for Great Fight!! Go JM!
RallySport Magazine
@RallySportMag
13s14 seconds ago
Pouring rain on the Nambucca stage. Will make things very interesting
And again Ogier with good road position
crazy eyes from Latvala
https://twitter.com/JariMattiWRC/sta...14779294101504
...Quote:
#Tyre info:
Citroën drivers: 6 Soft
M-Sport and Toyota: 5 Soft
Thierry Neuville: 4 Soft & 1 Hard
Hayden Paddon and Andreas Mikkelsen: 3 Soft & 2 Hard