he ll do it, confirmed by himself.Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
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he ll do it, confirmed by himself.Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
That's why I wrote it ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by wyler
my fault, took it as a suggestion! : )Quote:
Originally Posted by pantealex
off-topicISH
Oliver will compete in one or two rounds of the European Rallycross championship too with a i20 built by Hedstroms Motorsport. (Not the WORLD rallycross with electric cars.)
After his dismissal from Hyundai, what is the best and most likely way for Oliver for 2023?
- Privat Rally2
- Factory Rally2
- Factory Rally2 + a Few Rally 1
- Another combo
I don't know how their ties are with Skoda, but IF Mikkelsen to Hyundai, then Solberg to his seat?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sulland
New Fabia also coming.. + could be a heck of a livery with Skoda and Monster both green ;)
He should go to rally2 and prove he can win there first.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sulland
WRC2 with Skoda (both with or without Mikkelsen) or Puma at MSport, but that wouldn't lower pressure much.
He reminds me of Latvala. Good driver and fantastic on his day, but not really a ‘great’ and makes far too many mistakes under pressure. No Loeb or Ogier, or dare I say it, Rovanperä?
The standards needed are exceedingly high these days.
With so few top seats available, you have to take your chance when it presents itself, and he’s not done it sadly.
I don’t think a move to M-Sport is the answer, unless its a full WRC2 season. Maybe some extra testing of a Puma would be an advantage for both him and M-Sport so could form part of a deal. Or some National events in a Puma?
i am not sure if he can handle mentally this situation .
wrc2 season is the only way for him.Forget wrc1.Malcolm hasnt got more patience from Hyundai at crashed cars.
Examples of these days in the case of Oliver, please? There's maybe decent single stages but not fantastic full daysQuote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
Well, would be M-Sport, I would clearly try to hire him. He seems on a bit positive trend, he has some potential and clearly, they don’t have much better option right now (Breen is really nowhere currently, Fourmaux also and Loubet, you can have some doubts on his real potential considering his international experience).
It’s a bet but in M-Sport situation, they can’t do nothing more and at least, they have avoided the learning phase so in the best case scenario, it could finish like a 2013 Neuville season.
Solberg has talent, but was pushed up to WRC1 one year too early.
He should have done at least 1 season in a rally2 car. This to learn all the rallies, and not both learn the rallies and the brutal Rally1 car at the same time.
He now starts to get the car, and has stepped a few % back, to get km in the bank.
The speed he now has, will make it easier to hit the limit with something in reserve, since he masters a quicker car. Same as a few others in WRC2.
Now it depends on who still see a potential in Solberg, and give him a job, and might get a driver that can challenge Rovanpera in the years to come.
Malcolm normally has a nose to spot talent and opportunities in the future, lets see what happens.
Oliver also speaks french from his time in FFSA academy.....
A WRC2 season at M-Sport may be difficult. It didn't work very well for Huttunen or Kristensson...Quote:
Originally Posted by J4MIE
Agreed, but they got closer after the jokers, and they need one more to get on the podium.
And the Solberg team in sweden are very capable to pinpoint and correct trouble areas on gravel/snow.
So could be a good solution if all of the past is forgiven.
"makes far to many mistakes " when you think about for exempel Colin McrRae or Solberg senior i think there is no problem with Oliver.
Times have changedQuote:
Originally Posted by ELPE
Those guys also had fast stage times and won ralliesQuote:
Originally Posted by ELPE
Loeb changed that, win or bin it doesn't work anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by ELPE
He should have followed the example of Blomqvist & Sainz, and gone racing.....more opportunities.....
That's too easy.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
Maybe win or bin never worked, just at one time when the money and regs flowed free there were more manufacturers than viable driver choices at a time when rallies were won by minutes over longer routes of unknown stages, not tenths of seconds as today over sprints learnt by heart from a video whilst only one manufacturer is taking it equally serious. Mosley, a 'promoter', macro-economics and geopolitics can take more blame than Loeb, if he deserves it anyway.
I think it's mostly down to the fact that in the 2000's cars got more stronger and less mechanical/technical issues occurred. Now also steady drivers got a chance although Loeb was fast and reliable - a freak of nature really.
Sent from my DN2103 using Tapatalk
the main problem with oliver is that he is not fast and had all these accidents while struggling to be in top 6
he is very young of course but that does not mean anything... Wilsons son also started very young and never managed to become anything more than a laughing stock... one of the advantages of oliver is that the sport is literally dead so he could have future chances.
Without his massive failure in Finland he would still been at Huyndai. That´s my personal thought.
without his father he would have never been in hyundai. He doesn't belong in a team that is trying to win a championship, and the fact that hyundai put him in a 3th car shows they don't even care about the title.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
But now they maybe do care?Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
Is sure hope so. If they don't start taking this serious they might as well quit. No point in spending all those millions to make a car faster only to hire a driver who can't even get a podium.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Put him in a 4th car if you want to develop him, but you can't claim to be a serious contender for a title and put someone like him in the 3th car.
I definitely agree. Finland was just tip of the iceberg for Solberg. People also tend to forgot how unbeliveable slow he is in those rallies where he doesn’t crash right away.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
Slow? I wouldn´t say that. Give me examples.
I can see some of you guys happy over Oliver being lifted out. It´s because you´ve been after him since the very beginning. Jealousy, enviousness, I don´t know.
But spare your expressions of how bad driver he is. Because he is one of the best of the youngsters, no matter.
He´s not Kalle. Such drivers comes one in a century at most.
and on what data do you base that claim? His single win in liepaja 2 years ago?Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
look beyond his name, look at the results. There is nothing there that would indicates he should have been promoted to a factory team trying to win the title.
Someone like mikkelsen is clearly a step above solberg and drivers like ostberg, suninen, huttunen, bulcacia, rossel, lefebvre or even gryazin are just as good.
This has nothing to do with jealousy, this is called being objective. If you want to contend a championship you need to hire the best drivers available. And solberg is not the best driver available, so he only is there because of his daddy.
Being objective need some more rational thinking than yours. And don´t compare to old established WRC drivers. I talked about youngsters. Don´t you think they need chances?Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
someone rational does not put a new unproven driver in a team where he needs to beat ogier and lappi for them to win the title.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
For the perspective of the hyundai team trying to beat toyota that was an incredible stupid thing to do. Put him in a 4th car like katsuta.
- Most of NZ Friday (on Saturday he had technical issues)Quote:
Originally Posted by Rallyper
- Most of Ypres. He was fourth overall but best stage time was fifth and even that only once.
- Most of Estonia with a few decent stage times towards the end of the rally
- The beginning of Safari before his technical issues
- Most of the Friday stages in Croatia, with two good times at the end of the day.
It seems he's at his best on snow, with Arctic 2021 and Sweden 2022 being his two best performances overall.
Both winter rallyes, where he could adjust car by leaning its rear end to snow bank. He tried it again in last year rally Finland and crashed quite heavily.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
That has never been their perspective. And you know it. It´s unfair claiming that.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
This quote also shows very big lack of knowledge.Quote:
Originally Posted by bandit12
let alone that he admitted (in the heat of the moment, after his crash in Finland) that he's either trying to be fast and crashing, or hopelessly slow, last, and churning through his tyres.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
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it's not that i don't agree, but to put it in the context of "young drivers" we should compare this with the rookies.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
I initially posted this in the Hyundai thread but now that i think of it it's more relevant here, so copy paste job. Basically I think Solberg is missing a year of focusing on WRC2 when when you compare his career steps with Rovanpera it's very obvious where they diverge:
(this part below is copied from my post in the Hyundai thread)
They both drove in Latvia as youngsters because they didn't have a licence. And as they began to beat people in Latvia started to add other championships. Rovanpera drove Latvia, Finland and Italy in 2017, Solberg did Latvia and America in 2019. They both did well at this stage, winning rallies and showing great speed and talent. Next step was WRC2 in 2018 for Rovanpera where he was fast but had some crashes, but he won a couple rallies, while Solberg was at a similar stage in 2020 racing in ERC and WRC2. Now this is perhaps the first point where Solberg lost a bit of momentum and experience because 2020 for him was to get used to being at the front in Rally2/R5 cars and it didn't help that it was a short year. The next stage for Rovanpera was full focus on WRC2 in 2019 where he won almost everything as we know, so far they had similar career steps and for Solberg this should have been 2021. But instead Adamo put him in the car on Arctic rally instead of the WRC2 as was the plan. After that he kept bouncing between the WRC2 and the WRC. Hyundai's Rally2 car was not great at the time so that plus constant switching probably confused him. Now at this point Rovanpera is a WRC2 winner having dominated the championship so Toyota decides to secure the future and put him in the car full time, the short 2020 wasn't good for him either but he had the WRC2 win behind him and he was steadily improving. Solberg got a partial season in a disorganised Hyundai team after a very confusing 2021.
I think Solberg is very talented but there was a big mistake made in his development especially when you put him side by side with Rovanpera's plan. I don't know who made the decisions of what to do, was it Adamo, the Koreans, his dad, Neuville, the Pope... In 2020 Oliver showed speed and 2021 should have been a year to focus on the WRC2 championship with some pressure and with fighting at the top but not so much to be in the main team, giving interviews etc. Most of the greats had that kind of season behind them when they went into the WRC and started to perform. That's Solberg's missing year.
(end of copy)
How many rallies in a top class machinery did it took for a driver to get their first stage win?Quote:
Originally Posted by wyler
Fourmaux: 3 (with a shortcut? Otherwise it's 14)
Katsuta: 7
Loubet: 17
Greensmith: 22 (also very close in Portugal 2021)
Solberg got 13 rallies with top class cars and no stage win yet, one 2nd a handful of 3rd places in Sweden this year.
Out of these five drivers Katsuta is the only one who has won a power stage or gotten a podium. Katsuta and Loubet are the only ones who have led a rally.