2016 Silly Season

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Originally Posted by Simmi

Agree with your assessment of the drivers. Paddon certainly has more upside than Sordo at this point. I think we've seen everything that Dani can do - where as we don't know how high the ceiling is for Paddon yet. Bad year for Neuville but he should still be team leader, especially with the new car coming.

The issue the post above misses is that all three guys are under contract for next year - assuming Paddon has re-upped. So Hyundai would have to let Thierry be bought out. I think? Paddon brought budget to that #20 car - so if you roll him into the second 'factory' entry I'm not sure we'll be seeing those four-car entries that we saw at times this year.

I'd expect Sordo to share drives in the third car with Abbring. I'm sure I read a rumour about three drivers (or top two) counting for manufacturer points in the future.

Anyone know if that's true?

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The original plan was for Paddon to do only 9 events this year. Abbring would jump in the 3rd car for the remaining 4 events. However, Paddon then came up with more budget so they entered a 4th car in order to let Abbring drive his rallies.

I think we won't see a 4th car being entered next year again, especially if Paddon moves up to the main team and doesn't need to pay anymore.

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Originally Posted by EightGear

The original plan was for Paddon to do only 9 events this year. Abbring would jump in the 3rd car for the remaining 4 events. However, Paddon then came up with more results so they entered a 4th car in order to let Abbring drive his rallies.

I think we won't see a 4th car being entered next year again, especially if Paddon moves up to the main team and doesn't need to pay anymore.

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Corrected that... ;) I don't think any team would let Paddon pay to drive for them at this moment. People at Hyundai should be happy if they can keep Paddon and/or Neuville.

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Originally Posted by tommeke_B

Corrected that... ;) I don't think any team would let Paddon pay to drive for them at this moment. People at Hyundai should be happy if they can keep Paddon and/or Neuville.

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I think it would also be stupid for Neuville to leave them next year since they have the new car and that's what they have been working towards the last 2 years..I hope for Neuville's sake he'll be able to challange VW throughout the season or else this was all a waste of time and he could have stayed at M-Sport after 2013, and now could already challenge for victories. (maybe, really depends if that car is as good as Malcolm Wilson claims it to be)

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Originally Posted by tommeke_B

Corrected that... ;) I don't think any team would let Paddon pay to drive for them at this moment. People at Hyundai should be happy if they can keep Paddon and/or Neuville.

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Wasn't it communicated by both himself and Hyundai that he managed to get extra funds? IIRC it was announced even before Sweden, which was his first rally of the season.
So in 2015 at least he had no results yet...

Toyota:
In my opinion there is three drivers Toyota should consider.
Latvala: Ogier-challenging pace on all surfaces, and with Tommis help could be more conistent.
Meeke: Ogier-challenging pace on all surfaces, and with Tommis help could be more conistent.
Neuville: Tommi could bring back his "mojo" (the have met before :)
I would go for Latvala and Meeke (and a Yong charger like Sunninen, Lappi, etc)
Latvala and Meeke are the only two drivers that really challenges Ogier on speed, and Tommi him self could be of great assistance to make them more consistent. Then they could take the fight to VW.

Hyundai:
Paddon is fast on the "easy" rallies, wich are less technical, but still struggles on the more technical stuff. But is a keeper.
Neuville has huge potential, but has done a "Petter Solberg". He has become stressed out by his lack of pace, and started pushing in all the wrong places. He was HUGE in Finland in 2013, where he drove magnificent, but later he has started to go harder and harder in to the turns, missing apexes and destroying exits, costing a lot of time and being of higher risk. If the new car could bring back the "old" Neuville, that would be great, the WRC need more top drivers being at their top.

Citroën:
It will be interesting to see what happens with Citroëns (DSs) WRC effort.
If they should continue they should run a three car team.
The top drivers should be:
Meeke, obviuos speed.
Mikkelsen: He should be ready to come out of his roll as "test driver" in VW, and a new objective could give him a little fire in his belly. Now things are a bit to comfortable. He dont really need to perform more then adequate, because he could always have an excuse for his performance (also to him self), that he is the third driver, he has other objectives, and he doesnt have the same technical updates as the other two.

Volkswagen:
Ogier is a given, for all the right reasons.
If Latvala goes to Toyota they should hire Meeke. A colorfull character with huge speed. Capito would bring more confidence in him.
If Mikkelsen joins another team (not likely), the should consider another alternative. Lappi, Kajatanovic, Tideman are some of the names that pops up.

Mikkelsen extended his contract this year so he stays. No changes next year apart from Citroen if they decide to change the lineup... the rest are just rubbish talk.

What's so silly about 16' season? Ogier will be champion again, the rest does not matter.....

None of many last seasons was silly but all were named so in their forum threads...

Maybe with the exception of Loeb hurting himself on a motorbike and Grönholm trying to take the advantage of that (and Conrad Rautenbach crashing into Loeb on the road section). Even that happened years a go...

Well yes, I've enjoyed last 3 seasons more than previous 2 or 3 or more, I don't know why.....

silly season = transfer market season, not what your expectations are...

why me dear god ?