Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Well, you Finns should know! Kris?????
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Well, you Finns should know! Kris?????
Gus
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre Oliveira
Hahahahah , nice one! yea, Matthew Wilson!!!
Better than 2 cars only no?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre Oliveira
When are they announcing then? Seems a bit overkill if it's just Lappi!
Most likely in a day or two. Lappi was contractually tied to Citroen till Dec 31 and it's been speculated that it may have delayed the announcement. I'd also put all my money on combination of Lappi, Suninen and Greensmith. With atleast the first two driving all rallies.Quote:
Originally Posted by bassist
Monte entries will go public 13th January
but
MSport has to start testing...
I hope there will be also others than Gus in that 3rd car during 2020
Oh well, Shame, just as I thought!Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Probably. But to me a real team has three proper drivers. (Gus not included)Quote:
Originally Posted by Allez Andruet
Oh well, there we go, best of luck to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
While certainly not unexpected the 2 car+one "paydriver" for 9 events is certainly not the best possible lineup. That would have been Latvala or Mikkelsen as one of 3 fulltime drivers with Greensmith in 4th car. But it didn't look like neither the mentioned drivers nor MSport were really interested in that.
Well at least Greensmith will bring some funding to help support the team, if nothing else. Good on him!
Remember: M-Sport is interested in having non-paying drivers in two scenariosQuote:
Originally Posted by mknight
1) they will most likely win the title (case Ogier)
2) they are young and will most likely end up being well paid factory drivers for some years and bring some return to the investment (case Tänak, Evans)
Latvala doesn't really fit these conditions, not sure if Mikkelsen would either...also, Latvala wants to stay loyal to Toyota in order to fight for Ogier's seat for 2021. Not sure what Mikkelsen's planning...
Sure for MSport "business concept" Latvala doesn't fit in at all and Mikkelsen has seemingly less "potential" than Lappi. On top of that the first two don't want to pay (dunno how the deal went with Lappi since his manager also doesn't like to pay).
Thing was that Latvala or Mikkelsen would help both Lappi and Suninen in terms of experience, car setup/development and also work as someone to measure against in same car. This would help MSport business model in the longer term as well as both Lappi and Suninen.
This way there is a real danger that Lappi and Suninen will only have each other to race and compare against. Lappi was struggling with setup at Toyota even when the car was clearly fastest at end of 2018 and at Citroen he struggled in most rallies, Suninen similarly had setup issues when Evans was out.
For their near future it is important to a) beat the other one (this works well with this MSport deal), b) Don't be overshadowed by Rovanpera and Evans (this might be an issue)
I would expect that MSport hires some experienced driver next year when the new car development starts though.
There are still 4 maybe 5 events when Greensmith will not driving. Sweden, Kenya, NZ and Japan. In NZ I really can see Paddon.
It's true that M-Sport doesn't now have an experienced guy to develop new homologations and make setups for rallies, or to be a benchmark from the car speed (remember Finland 2019, was it the drivers or the car that was slow?). But it would be quite expensive to solve that by hiring someone like Latvala or Mikkelsen.
Also, remember that Lappi probably has a special deal with Citroen salary and Ponsse support.
If Lappi likes the Fiesta and can "gel" with it, he will be a contender for top spot, and could be the big surprize in 2020!
The question is: has the car been left behind in terms of development? Could even Ogier or Tänak win rallies with it?
With the current situation in WRC I actually think this was perfect position for MSport to get one of them very cheap/no cost, something that is not likely to repeat next year imo (with Ogier + maybe Loeb and even Sordo retiring, and JML will also likely be in much worse form).Quote:
Originally Posted by AnttiL
- I don't think Fiesta with any driver will be a contender for top spot in 2020, not when Hyundai is pushing massively in development and drivers and Toyota already has an edge over Fiesta from 2019 and there is seemingly no real development going on at MSport. (no testing for long time even with many test days available)Quote:
Originally Posted by Sulland
- He is still an enigma in many ways. Specially second half of 2018 was a huge letdown. So just about anything can happen both ways.
https://yle.fi/urheilu/3-11141513
Lappi has already driven the Fiesta in December and says it felt more rational and more logical (than Citroen).
It would be hard for any other car to compete with the Toyota & Hyundai machines. Their budgets would blow Ford out of the water even if they were full-time. Plus they are likely to have B-teams too.
The Fiesta's reliability and ruggedness is likey to earn M-Sport their best points. Speed on the occaisional rally may still be there but the opposition is mighty...
Gus Greensmith sounds like this is his year for spending big and trying to to prove himself...
@GreensmithGus
Big risk, big reward, car #44 for the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 2020.
Gus isn't too bad, has some potential and without him it would probably just be two Fiestas so no complaints here. I see the car is free for Sweden (Tidemand?)
Free to be rented.Quote:
Originally Posted by RS
Engine evolutions in Monte-Carlo.
Aero improvements later in season.
https://www.rallit.fi/esapekka-lapin...a-parannuksia/
Translation:
Updates for Monte:
Lappi is well on his way to testing the Fiesta as the team begins to prepare for the season-opening Monte Carlo rally. Lappi and Suninen travelled to France on Thursday for a test day.
An updated engine for Monte is coming to the car and later in the summer more new parts will be added to that side. A new aerodynamics package is coming also. They also seem to be developing the car, so I have a pretty good feeling about this.
Ah good, M-Sport was falling a bit behind on the engine evolutions front.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Yes any updates for Msport are good news, time will tell how many and how much they do.
Will probably have to use relative speed of Evans and Suninen for comparison.
Lappi: "I don't see why it couldn't succeed. Development parts are coming in and then the car should go stronger. I think there can be big surprises about how hard our car can go." :)
Testing has started...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENWyR8-W...g&name=900x900
His family business and main sponsor Crown Oil's revenue has increased from £144,600,000 (2018) to £197,500,000 (2019) ...Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Is that profit?Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
If only...Quote:
Originally Posted by T16
2019 Accounts show the Gross Profit as £36.6m, and Net Profit £6.6m.
Net Assets are £25.5m.
Those numbers leave plenty of room for Gus’s marketing/advertising campaign ��Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC
Just bullish talk or are they really confident?
https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...engine-in-2020
The car wasnt far off last season. Evans should've won in Corsica and Suninen showed some good pace at times. Engine upgrades will only help.Quote:
Originally Posted by T16
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EN1MnVnWoAAxzA0?format=jpg
https://twitter.com/MSportLtd/status...11723566780416
Blue and white matches neatly the Finnish flag ;)
https://twitter.com/esapekkalappi/st...362766849?s=21
Would be nice to see it without such similar background colours.
Looks like Ford have more prominence, not just the badge either.