Originally Posted by
Lundefaret
I was a part of Fløenes split with Mikkelsen, but it didn't turn out the way I expected. So I was also a part of bringing them back together. :)
Ola Fløene is a very nice guy, but he made some very untachtical interviews in the Norwegian news, he was was some what of a loose canon on deck. I also think he was loosing a little motivation, so he maybe was not the professional athlete that You need to be in a modern professional WRC team. He also made some mistakes.
I (and more with me) contacted the management and said that they should consider to do something with the situation.
The "solution" was one that I did not see coming, the hiring of Markula.
I was almost in disbelief when I heard the first inboard stage with the new pair. Markula may be a very good codriver when speaking Finnish, but he is not close to be fluent in English, so not only did Andreas need to get the pace notes in a foreign language, but read by a man that could not speak it very well.
Because of this Andreas had a low turn when it comes to work with the pace notes, that still hurts his driving. If You analyse Mikkelsens onboards You will notice among other aspects that he is not always consequent when it comes to his actions to the pace notes. A "flat" should be pedal to the metal no mather what, when You start to question if a "flat" is really a "flat", and if You heard the note correctly, You are in big trouble.
I think Andreas pointed this out, but I also think that Markula responded by saying it was Mikkelsen that was the problem. So their working relationship was not good, to put it mildly.
I also pointed these factors out to the team in a thread on the Norwegian rally forum, and I questioned the managements decision to select a codriver that doesn't speak English very good.
I got a lot of flak for that, but I also got a lot of calls from people close to Andreas, that said they where very glad some one said this out loud.
The team pointed out that I was wrong, but then they did what proved that they really thought I was right. They changed back.
Ola had in the mean time found new motivation, and he now was more the professional codriver that is expected, and Andreas and Ola found back to earlier happy days. Very good on them both.
Regarding Mikkelsens codriver in the future, I dont know how many years Fløene wants to continue, and I dont think the management knows either, so they are prepping one of Mikkelsens friends to be a future possible codriver for Andreas.
His name is Anders Jæger Synnevåg.
He started out codriving Bernt Kollevold, who works for EVEN management, in the Norwegian Rally Championship in Kollevolds Ex Petter Solberg Celica ST205. He is currently codriving Ole Christian Veiby in the JWRC.
And now off course Jonas Andersson also is contracted by EVEN management, so this means they have several options if/when Ola Fløene decides to hang up his helmet, or other things should occur.
I think the debacle around Fløenes exit and reentry learned EVEN management a lot about the importance of having a stable of codrivers, and I dont think they want to be in the same situation again. So they have worked very professionally for this not to happen.
EVEN Management has several drivers, but Mikkelsen is whit out a doubt the most important one, so he is always prioritised if something should come up, just like he should be. So dont be surprised if it ends up with Jonas Andersson or Anders Jæger Synnevåg cording Mikkelsen in a few years.
