http://rallyestonia.com/hyundai-moto...rally-estonia/ H.Paddon/S.Marshall will start in Rally Estonia 2018, with Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC.
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http://rallyestonia.com/hyundai-moto...rally-estonia/ H.Paddon/S.Marshall will start in Rally Estonia 2018, with Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC.
He should do some asphalt rallies instead...
Hyundai Motorsport announce new President https://rallysportmag.com/hyundai-mo...esident050318/
In light of the performance of Hayden's car at Finland I am surprised that no one has commented on the changes that have been engineered into it
Or about how poor Mikkelsen was in comparison (not just this rally but others as well compared to Sordo). I just get the feeling that Hyundai have thrown their weight behind Mikkelsen prematurely compared to Sordo and Paddon, but don't see them changing their minds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mk2 RS2000
Obviously at this rally Mikkelsen had the worst road position for all but few friday stages (when the car was in one piece), even then on friday he was 5th on the road while Paddon was 11th.Quote:
Originally Posted by Grundo Farb
The season so far has obviously been quite bad from Mikkelsen (especially compared with his 3 rallies with Hyundai last year). Paddon did his first very good result of the season here. (on Sardinia he "suffered" 4th place, a bit like Mikkelsen did in Mexico).
Compared on the rallies they competed:
Sweden - Mikkelsen faster
Portugal - next to each other after a few stages, then Mikkelsen retired with technical issues and Paddon crashed
Sardinia - Mikkelsen faster, retired due to gearbox
Finland - Paddon faster
Sordo is doing very good this year (except on Monte), but he also did not start on the rallies that he typically did bad on (Sweden, Finland). Also compared to last year he does not have technical issues, which seem to have moved to Mikkelsen (3 technical DNFS from 3rd, 4th and 1st position).
So if at the moment Hyundai should pick 3 cars out of those 4. It would be Neuville, Mikkelsen and Sordo.
The Hyundai always looks to me that it's fighting an inherent imbalance in the chassis. It looks overly roll stiff in the rear....Neuville has found a way to set it up/drive it that works for him, but the others seem to not be able to be consistent with it.
Mikkelsen said in an intervu that he struggle to get the right feeling in the car, they don't thrust the car at the stages.
In tests it feels good, than on the stages it feels different.
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Strange how he was so fast in the first few rallies he did with it last year, and now after so many events all confidence in the car seems to be gone. When we saw him passing by on the stages in Finland I was always disappointed...Quote:
Originally Posted by skarderud
@mknight, about starting positions... Tänak was 3rd on the road on friday and still quickest.
Added some extra comments to yours above.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Sordo has been driving his best in a long time, but I don't think Mikkelsen has been as good as the team expected him to be.
Finland is the first rally with the new front diff which Paddon has been wanting for quite a while, it will be interesting to see if they have any other developments to come during the season.
Sometimes I think testing can be misleading, when you pound over the same road man times you adjust yourself to the road and car, even if its subconscious and you can feel well with the set up. when you have to be flat out on the first pass in competition, there is no adjustment time and you are slow.Quote:
Originally Posted by skarderud
I find it interesting that the decision to develop the Paddon transmission requirements must have been made some time ago so that he could test and refine in the Estonian rally before Finland. Also interesting is that at Shakedown he used the set up as decided upon by the other two team drivers after their Finland test day then changed to his Estonian Rally developed set up for the rally. For sure, aside from being quicker than his team mates he did appear to be far more comfortable with his car than they were all event.
With this investment into a set up developed for Hayden it does make one wonder what changes might be in the wind for next season.
The only driver with a contract for 19 is Mikkelsen?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mk2 RS2000
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Both Mikkelsen and Tanak have contracts for 2019Quote:
Originally Posted by skarderud
Mikkelsen not necessarily.Quote:
Originally Posted by KiwiWRCfan
It's understood the options on the second year are in the team's favour...
Mikkelsen gets closer to becoming ostberg vol. 2 year by year... a nobody with a rich daddy.
Earlier in the season I've read that Hyundai would have introduced few upgrades to the car for Deutschland Rallye. Are they testing them or did they change plans?
At the end of next year we wll know for sure.This moment its a bit early to judje him.When he was at vw he was a rising driver,actually 3rd driver.This year is his first as leading driver along with Neuville,so be patient until the end of next season.Quote:
Originally Posted by N.O.T
Did Mikkelson even do Finland? he was anonymous... there could be some clearing out of the divisions next yearQuote:
Originally Posted by nafpaktos
JML?
Mikkelson?
Sordo?
Paddon?
Evans?
Maybe not Breen, but he soon need to start showing something... if Ogier goes to Citroen, I dont see room, unless he outbids Otsberg?
Mikkelsen has to the be the biggest disappointment of 2018.
After all his 'desperate to get back to WRC' talk and then landing a great full-time seat in possibly the best car, he has done virtually nothing. He's scored a third of the points of Neuville who everyone used to think he was superior to..
This has been a polarized year indeed with only the big three winning rallies and others getting only podiums here and there. Breen, Evans, Mikkelsen and Latvala have had ”difficult” seasons, Lappi and Suninen are still rookies and others have only part time seasons.
Yeah that's a fair point.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Basically there are only 4 drivers who you could say have good season:
3 full time (Neuville, Ogier, Tanak) and Sordo
for all others there is some good result here and there but overall less than expected.
If we going for biggest disappointment then Latvala takes it ahead of Mikkelsen for me. Car he developed and fought for title with last year. Now slowest Toyota and with crashes as well. The "suspension failures " that always plagued him are also back. Also an interesting static. Latval has not a lead a WRC event for a single stage this season. Sad I though he was great last season and his mojo got back after 2016.
Mikkelsen is close second, most of the disappointment comes from the contrast between the 3 rounds in Hyundai last year.
Evans would win the award for some british journalists. I still remember Colin Clark claiming at kitchen table after wales that Evans will fight for title this year no matter what car he is in.
Mikkelsens season has been terrible so far, no doubt about that.
But lets not forget, both Portugal and Sardegna looked really good for Mikkelsen until the car broke down. Not his fault and nothing he could do about it. Finland was disappointing but lets give the guy a break. With him coming to Finland with most likely two podiums from the two last rallies, no one would speak about his bad season.
Lets see what he can do the rest of this season and the start of 2019. It took Neuville 4-5 years to adapt to the Hyundai. Mikkelsen has been in the team less than a year....
Like said, he had great pace in Catalunya and Australia but we haven’t seen any of that this yearQuote:
Originally Posted by Eric
Nah Sardinia with leading by 14s in first service before car broke.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
In Sardegna the car broke after he had spun it twice and backed it into the bales, so that breakage might have been his fault. Can't say for sure though, maybe it would have happened anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric
This is not true and I have no idea where you have it from.Quote:
Originally Posted by GravelBen
He lost 2nd gear on stage before, check out the replay how it just starts jumping out after making strange noises on multiple brakings. No spins. Then on the stage after that during breaking the gearbox breaks completely and he spins as the gearbox is stuck in gear (note that he needs to change from 3 to 1). What's the real reason for looosing 2nd only Hyundai knows.
I got that from watching it live and the day highlights :rolleyes:. They showed a small spin in SS6 (maybe spin is the wrong word, more like a half spin and slide wide) and a problem with second gear after that, then a spin again in SS7 and got stuck in reverse up against the bales.
I just watched the WRC+ in-car as well now to check - the one in SS6 is around 4:30, its not much of an impact (not one you would normally expect to break things) but it is enough to stall the car when it hits the berm so its possible the gearbox was weakened then. You don't hear the gear problem until later in the stage.
I can't tell from the in-car if the SS7 spin was stuck in gear or just that he was distracted by the problem and having trouble driving the car without second gear. It obviously wasn't completely broken/stuck because he could select reverse and back up to the bales.
I didn't say it was definitely the spins that damaged the gearbox, just meant that it might have been a factor. I agree that only the team will know what went wrong with it.
Mikkelsen joking about doing the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon today will be easier than Rally Finland
https://parcferme.no/rally/mikkelsen...-hjelperytter/
Our aero review of the new Hyundai i20 AP4++ built by Hyundai New Zealand and Paddon Rallysport that Hayden Paddon drove in the Ashley Forest Rallysprint. Some interesting proposals we might see in the future WRC car
https://wrcwings.wordpress.com/2018/...mic-proposals/
A bit of a gravedig but I haven't seen this before
I watched SS6 some 2 months ago and it never would have occurred me to call that thing on SS6 a spin. The car is always pointing the right direction. He is a bit longer on the breaking and then the car stalls (without any audible throttle input) in ruts on the outside of the corner in like 5 kph.Quote:
Originally Posted by GravelBen
In SS7 you hear for some 2 mins before the corner in 3-4-5th gear massive rattling from the gearbox (much louder than engine noise), which is not there at the start of the stage. At that point pieces of 2nd gear are likely getting everywhere in the gearbox. That he can select reverse after stopping in the corner only means the pieces were not blocking reverse at that moment.
To recap your original comment:
The first highlighted part is not correct, first one wasn't a spin. In the "final" spin he is on throttle and the car doesn't drive ( and spins out due to momentum), so gearbox is completely broken.Quote:
Originally Posted by GravelBen
The second highlighted part is quite a statement to suggest based on the only visible incident with 5kph stall with little throttle. A bit like saying Latvala broke his car in Germany by pissing next to it.
Just a small correction to this article It is all 100% New Zealand designed and made by Hayden and his team
https://parcferme.no/rally/andreas-s...an-sliter-med/
""We knew in January that the car was not good enough for you on asphalt. Now we are in October. Why did not something happen?
"First of all, there are not so many asphalt runs on the calendar, and we have had very few tests on asphalt. I push on for changes, but it takes time before things come. Things that came two weeks ago I asked for a year ago. And some of the changes are still improving, even for me. You see, the other two get it. They have been closer. But I do not have that. So there I still have to figure out something, says Mikkelsen."
....
"I just have to figure out the driving style with the car, so. I'm still trying to drive a car, which I think is best driving a car and the way I've been driving for years, "says Mikkelsen.
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Well it's true that Neuville and Sordo were seemingly closer to the top (then again there were only 3-4 dry stages).
Rest kinda supports what was said around here before. Adapting the car to Mikkelsen is not a priority at all, neither are tarmac tests and due to that he seems to be giving up and trying to drive differently.
While the first part is kinda understandable since he is not fighting for championship (though that wasn't clear before Corsica when he was 3rd in standings) and they have Sordo as a tarmac driver, it still hurts them in manu champs when Sordo does not get points (like in Germany). But as I wrote already in april after a while becomes a bit too many rallies where the car(s) have issues (Finland, tarmac -Corsica and Germany for all, Spain for Mikkelsen) and it the end, that's why they will loose manu champ imo.
Have to wonder about how universal the 2017/2018 I20 really is. The only driver that drives it consistently fast is Neuville.
Sordo was also minutes behind in Finland and GB last year (didn't start this year). Mikkelsen struggles on tarmac and also in Finland. Paddon has been struggling on gravel on basically all rallies except Finland (certainly relative to 2016 where he had same speed as Neuville and also compared with some 2017 drives (Sardinia).
So if you were Paddon/Breen/Evans would you go for part-time seat at Hyundai knowing this or part-time seat at Citroen (which obviously was also temperamental but now seems to be improving) or to full-time at MSport where you risk that car will start falling behind. Hard pick.
Paddon was leading Portugal before his crash, and subsequently had to take Sardegna easier because another heavy crash would have been dangerous to the sustained injuries. To me it seems he has been playing tactics of trying to secure points by not taking risks, especially in Turkey. And in a way, it has paid off.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Last year he led/was in the top on multiple gravel rallies before technical issues or mistakes. This year it was only portugal with lotsof road cleaning and not by much.
IMO it's clear that he is slower this year relative to last.
My thoughts too. Leading Portugal before crashing (which from memory was quite unlucky dodging a big rock on the line), taking it easy in Sardegna due to injuries (and terrible road position for the day 1 mudbath), fast in Finland despite playing it safe for team points, strategic drive protecting the car in Turkey (with podium result). GB was the only rally he seemed a bit off pace, and team orders/strategy may have been a factor there too - though its never been one of his best rallies, he doesn't seem to like the mud as much as more consistent gravel.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
Of course none of us are unbiased when it comes to supporting drivers/teams, but mknight's status as Mikkelsen no.1 cheerleader does seem to result in some very selective memory at times.
If we look at the 2017 season, Sardegna was a good pace until the two crashes. In Portugal he was interrupted three times with technical problems. When the car worked, he made four stage wins but also a similar number of off-pace stages. In other rallies he was never fighting for the lead.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
How do you compare Paddon overall performance in 2016-2017-2018 then? In short.
For me it's 2016>>2017>2018.
In any case that wasn't the main point. Main point was that the only one delivering consistent top 5 performance in the 2017+ i20 is Neuville. All the other drivers have rallies where they used to be fast and now aren't, not necessarily that the car is slow, but setup seems tricky.
2017 was a nightmare year for Paddon with all sorts of sh!t going on, thats public knowledge now and no secret.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
5th-Ret(from 1st)-4th-4th-3rd-7th in 2018 is pretty consistent top 5 performance isn't it, especially for a driver thats only getting half the seat time compared to most of the guys he is competing against. I remember Colin McRae once saying that the difference between the top 5 or so drivers in the world on any given day is mostly just confidence. And without the time in the car its very hard to build that confidence. Hopefully they let him have a charge in Australia instead of driving risk-free for points, but it will probably depend what the others do early on.
The car definitely seems to suit Neuville better than anyone else though, I do agree with you in that regard.
You’re forgetting Sordo; he fought for the lead, or podium places, in MC, Mexico, Portugal, Argentina, Germany and Catalunya! Corsica was the only rally he was off the pace, still he managed to end fourth. I’m amazed Hyundai management isn’t pushing him to do a full season next year, although this part time drive seems to suit him and the team.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight