Ostberg to replace meeke then?
Or adamo buying everyone available on the market stop them from driving for the competition? :p
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Ostberg to replace meeke then?
Or adamo buying everyone available on the market stop them from driving for the competition? :p
Toyota fill up for next year. Or you think that Tanak or Latvala leave team? 3rd place was for KalleQuote:
Originally Posted by meh
I would say Citroen. Østberg came to Finland because all teams are there at once?Quote:
Originally Posted by meh
I'd also say Citroen tbh. He will surely not cost them much and was quite consistent in 2018, just what you would need for 3rd driver. They also already have a "young" and coming driver with Lappi. They probably don't have funds to pay some other available driver like Evans or Mikkelsen. Also he will accept 1 year contract which Citroen will probably aim for, not sure if they start in 2021 at all or rather focus on developing new car.
Toyota would imo rather go for Evans or Suninen.
Ostberg will be Citroen. No options for him unless he brings budget to Malcolm's door...
Prediction was purely based on that "interview" when Mads was in studio but I don't put my money on that. The most logical should be that he stays in Citroen. But of course, when full-time WRC seat will be available, he goes whereever.Quote:
Originally Posted by KKS
I can not see any driver to be fixed yet in Toyota.
* Tänak - I guess it's Toyota vs M-Sport. More logical for me should be Toyota, but there are every kind of connection and friendly relationship with M-Sport also. If there are not world-class actors everywhere, then I rule out Hyndai. But you never know...
* Rovanpera - rumors rumors rumors, but it should be logical to get him some WRC seat-time next year. Full season in team with goal to get factory title... I doubt.
* Latvala and Meeke - both are fast, both are experienced, but they just don't deliver points. You can not rely on them. How long time someone want to pay salary if guys don't get the job done. I like them both, but at the moment I can not see the reason why they should be hired for next season.
I agree with you on not "fixed" drivers, but with what definitely looks like the fastest car around why would they go for Østberg, who while fast in Sweden/Finland and consistent on other gravel rallies, usually lacks a bit of speed to the top 3 and is weak on tarmac. Maybe if he would agree on sharing a car with Rovanpera (who wouldn't do all rounds).
Else for a fulltime seat I'd say Evans, Suninen and Mikkelsen are all clearly better choice and none of them would say no to Toyota imo.
I don't see Suninen going to Toyota despite his nationality. I like him, but he's not particularly marketable for the Japanese, and he's got the potential to do great things but the smallest operating window of all the drivers. He's rarely in the zone; when he is, he's fucking quick (and mistake prone) but when he's not he's quite slow.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
For me, Toyota might go the Hyundai route (I think Tommi would be brave enough to take notes from Adamo) and start swapping out their two non-championship drivers to give Kalle and Katsuta runs in the Yaris.
I've been pondering lately that one of the biggest differences of the modern WRC compared to 15 years ago is the absence of the specialist driver. Skoda and the PSA teams would frequently switch out the drivers that didn't battle for the title. Hyundai has brought that sort of dynamic back with a multi driver lineup, keeping their championship challenger in all season and swapping the rest.
With both the lack of seats available nowadays (no privateers being the primary reason) the driver swapping strategy must return. Truth is that not all drivers can challenge for the championship, so why bother? It's a little drastic, and I can feel myself getting too extreme, but Hyundai is doing the right thing by sticking more drivers into the championship than seats available.
Sorry for straying off topic.
Apart from anything else, spreading the points around 3 or 4 secondary drivers gives them lower position in the WDC and better running order in the gravel rallies. Look at Sordo in Sardinia...Quote:
Originally Posted by steve.mandzij
It sounds a little farcical but it's always been done, and would be an okay substitute for the privateer entry of yesteryear.Quote:
Originally Posted by Morte66
Swapping drivers when it's decided on the start of the season what they will drive (and probably written in contracts), like Hyundai in 2018 is somehow ok. Cause the drivers know what they are signing for and what the plan will be.
Swapping on a weeks notice cause you didn't like the performance in last rally like in Portugal is something else.
ThisIsIrishRallying
Interesting to hear @Craig_Breen
& @paulnagle1
will switch to a i20 R5 for the next round off the @IrishTarmacTROA
the @UlsterRally
i20 R5 was really missing from his collection :DQuote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
https://www.ewrc-results.com/profile/5636-craig-breen/
I'd say Breen will almost certainly do rally GB with Hyundai WRC. Loeb said repeatedly he doesn't want more starts and will do one or both tarmac rallies, Sordo has always been very bad in GB and Breen was 4th last year.
Turkey is much more uncertain as Sordo is usually good on slow gravel rallies, but wasn't there last year, Breen was and drove well on friday. Australia is similar, Breen drove there last two years but both times with crashes and slow times. IMO Adamo might even try to get Paddon for Australia.
https://www.hs.fi/urheilu/art-2000006194435.html
Column on the largest Finnish newspaper claiming that Rally Finland sealed few things at TGR for 2020:
- Tänak to stay
- Latvala also likely to stay, though it divides opinion within the team, but the Japanese want to keep him
- Meeke to be replaced with Rovanperä
Usually this probably wouldn't raise any eyebrows, but the writer is the guy writing Mäkinen's autobiography at the moment (due to be released later this year).
it all sounds very likely... which doesn't mean it's true. After all most people thought Loeb to Hyundai was crazy...
Anyway if it's true I'd still say it's too early for Kalle to do full season. But on the other hand he is such a special case that even if he spends next 2 years with weak WRC results he likely won't get kicked.
Too early for Kalle and while Ostberg and Paddon are available they are more reliable point scorers than Latvala, Meeke and others. Quite funny that Camilli is also mentioned here - 3rd tier driver and he is not any help to score vital manu points. Even on tarmac Paddon is more proven choice.
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I don't think it's too early for Kalle. There's nothing more for him to prove with R5 machinery.
The risk in WRC is that he will be "in the middle of nowhere" behind all experienced drivers (like Suninen and Lappi were on overseas rallies last year). At that point he might either try to push and get retirements (and not learn much from the rallies) or spend so long at "less than top speed" that the step up can be difficult.Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Ogier was somehow in similar situation though and after a year of clearly behind everyone he managed to step up nicely.
what is the other option?Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Drive selected rallies in R5 when there is a lot of competition from other teams/drivers to keep and fine-tune the ability to drive 100% the whole rally.
Kalle was in trouble finishing 3 or 4 rallies in a row this season. For sure he is ready to make a partial move though.
On the other hand Rovanperä has nothing to prove in R5 as well. Tough choice. Part time WRC and R5 season?
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When he was driving private team cars with some setup issues in Sweden and Corsica. Monte is just a difficult event, the ice wasn't noticed by his safety crew.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarmop
Well, maybe, but still the burden of bringing home team points in that tight competition is quite a big responsibility for someone starting in the class. A shared car on favourite events, with no pressure is more ideal imo.
He only miss now to run the Proton of all the R5 homologated cars, not?, (excluding new generations of fiesta and fabia), I think not so much drivers have done itQuote:
Originally Posted by dimviii
Yes I'd say so as well. But looking at who his manager is, it's more likely he just gets pushed in full time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarmop
Don't agree he has nothing to prove in R5. This year in Sweden he was never really the fastest even against "B" guys and in Chile he was on same speed as Østberg. He still didn't win a tarmac rally with R5 (he did win Spain, but that's more than 1/3 gravel)
Despite Meeke's results so far I'm surprised to hear Tommi wants him replaced. Before he went to Toyota he was Kris' biggest shill, going on and on about how he could win any rally and really wanting him onboard.
Tommi is so confusing, and really seems to have a massive hardon for Tanak.
It's not like you've had to beat everyone on every surface on every rally before you can move up to WRC. It's about the overall picture and the maturity he's shown lately.Quote:
Originally Posted by mknight
Don't we all?Quote:
Originally Posted by steve.mandzij
It seems to me, when Meeke was driving the C3 and crashed a lot, then the popular opinion was, that the car not performing enough and he had to overdrive it quite a lot. Now driving maybe the best car, it is clear he just isn't thinking reasonably most of the time.Quote:
Originally Posted by steve.mandzij
He definitely has the speed, but he can't transform them to any results. In this rally he had to play the team player role, but instead wanted to fight Tänak. He could easily collect 4. and 5. places, but when he is trying to beat the best drivers, then mistakes start to happen.
Picture is looking good, yes, BUT in those days, without specialist rivers, you have to beat everyone in lower classes, on every surface. There are multiple rallywinners jobless or oing partial seasons because of that today...Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
And he is young, he has one more than enough and could do it a bit more.
Interesting is, that after todays crash there hasn`t been anything more about it than a small tweet on TGR Twitter. That`s quite odd, though they had 2 excellent podiumplaces to hope and celebrate for and meeke is probably pissed himself... Also Mäkinen probably oesn`t have the heart to too changes in the middle of the season.
But he did beat Kopecky in Rally BohemiaQuote:
Originally Posted by mknight
The biggest advantage for kalle is meeke and latvala's utter failure this year. He will have to try hard to to worse than meeke.
Keith Cronin should be considered for a drive, incredible talent, needs to be given a chance!!!!
To be fair to Meeke, he's been the consistent points scorer Toyota thought they wanted, collecting points from the bottom on all but two occasions. He's been unlucky with punctures mostly, I can't recall him suffering many mechanical failures.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
As much as I love Jari he's the one who should be in hotter water, since he's last of the full time drivers, behind even Teemu and Mikkelsen, deposite having his fabled 200+ WRC starts and the speed to go with it. He too has been unlucky, and wise in Finland this time around, but he's got to start pushing for the second half.
Latvala and Lappi have both done worse than Meeke, they both have less points than Meeke after starting the same number of rallies.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
I am sure Rovanpera could manage the same, without even trying very hard to do badly... ;)
But I agree, It is a lot easier to imagine Rovanpera in a Toyota now than it was in January, and not just because of his own driving.
He has forgotten to be scared of losing his job, like he was at the start of the year. Maybe that will come back now...Quote:
Originally Posted by trykmann
Note that 15 of his 60 points are from PS. At 25% that's the highest rate of any driver. Those don't count for manus.Quote:
Originally Posted by steve.mandzij
When you look at the manu points per driver for example here: http://planetemarcus.com/saison-wrc/
Meeke has 44 only 1 point ahead of Latvala. Only driver that is worse is Loeb who also has 4 less starts.
Finnish press was wrong last season regarding Toyota and Meeke so it could be again. Rally Finland has 'decided' nothing - especially not this soon after. Easy headlines and articles to write - so although it may end up becoming a truth - take it with a pinch of salt for now.
What is "known", is that Kalle will be in a yaris next year and the deal was done well in advance of Finland. Jari has been there 3yrs now and last season Tommi even admitted he thought Latvala's time was up, before his resurgence in the 2nd half of the year and Lappi to Citroen becoming a thing. To then perform as he has done in the first half of this season again, I don't see how Latvala continues under Makinen unless the Japanese make it so. However the Japanese have so far allowed Tommi run the team however he wants, so it remains to be seen what happens. Tommi has been a bit prickly in the press towards Jari all season as well.
My hunch which could easily be wrong, is that Latvala is already out the door and Meeke remains an open case for now (both could go, but there's no chance both stay). Tanak ofcourse will stay and Kalle has a full season deal.