New to WRC--How should I watch and what should I watch for

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Originally Posted by Revman

Talk to me about Hanninen.....Seems like a journeyman type of driver. Did development work for Hyundai and now Toyota....Does this guy have rally winning potential?

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Not really. He's a good development driver and had some success in inferior and regional categories but he's exceptional and never got a proper shot at the WRC. The main reason Toyota has him is his development skills and for reference, because they tested a lot with him so his performance this year will show them how the car is coming along, plus he can continue to help develop the car on actual rallies. I expect him to have a more limited role next year.

his career: http://www.ewrc-results.com/profile....=Juho-Hanninen

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Originally Posted by Revman

Talk to me about Hanninen.....Seems like a journeyman type of driver. Did development work for Hyundai and now Toyota....Does this guy have rally winning potential?

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Juho's main problem is lack of WRC experience. He isn't young anymore and can't afford to just drive around to collect experience and that's a viscious circle. He was both faster and more reliable than Mikkelsen and Neuville few years back in IRC but those two were young, picked by WRC teams, got experience on the WRC level and now they are where they are while Juho spent most of the time driving a family tractor in Finland with some occasional starts which usually ended with a crash from trying to show too hard that he's still capable of something).

On the bright side - he is vey funny guy with great stage-end comments in Grönholm style, nice guy to talk with and also an author of possibly most funny rally accident ever when after several rolls his car ended on wheels on the roof of some house (at first he even tried to continue driving) :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwiJOqQFahY

Besides that he is WRC2, ERC and IRC champion.

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Originally Posted by Revman

Talk to me about Hanninen.....Seems like a journeyman type of driver. Did development work for Hyundai and now Toyota....Does this guy have rally winning potential?

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he is nothing in the WRC, c class driver.

Thank you for the replies re: Hanninen.....This is kind of what I gathered with my research.

Talk to me about Latvalla please.....Seems like he has talent. Eager to have a better season than last. Potential rally winner if the car is right?

Additionally, Lappi taking the place of Hanninen next year? Seems that Latvalla took his spot this year--for good reason, but still took his spot.

Finally, without the exit of Volkswagen and the addition of Latvalla, Toyota would be hurting in the cockpit it seems...

Latvala should not be in the WRC but his daddy pays to drive when he messes up, the toyota team prefered latvala from mikkelsen because the ex-manager of tommi makinen is the manager of latvala.

It´s Latvala (not Latvalla, not all names in Finland with double consonant)

And team boss Mäkinen (not Makkinen) is 4 times WRC champion.

Don´t worry, after Monte you will be lot wiser than now, some things are much easier learn when they are actually happening.

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Originally Posted by Revman

Thank you for the replies re: Hanninen.....This is kind of what I gathered with my research.

Talk to me about Latvalla please.....Seems like he has talent. Eager to have a better season than last. Potential rally winner if the car is right?

Additionally, Lappi taking the place of Hanninen next year? Seems that Latvalla took his spot this year--for good reason, but still took his spot.

Finally, without the exit of Volkswagen and the addition of Latvalla, Toyota would be hurting in the cockpit it seems...

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Latvala has been doing the same for years. When he has a good day and doesn't make any mistake he can win but only from time to time as usually he either crashes or picks up a puncture or whatever which ruins his result. He has very strong backing and has been in the WRC for roughly a decade but actually he never fullfiled the expectations. If it was up to me I would take Mikkelsen over Latvala any day.

Lappi is rather young, definitely fast on lower levels but so far he has had no chance to drive WRC. He has been also very very accident prone (that's similar to Latvala). His main weakness is asphalt because he managed to crash in nearly all asphalt events he did in his career and what is particularly interesting he's been crashing near exclusively in right-hand corners (Hartusvuori found that). What is also interesting is that so far he has usually managed well to maintain the lead but had problems to keep the car on the road if he needed to catch someone in front of him.

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Originally Posted by Revman

Thank you for the replies re: Hanninen.....This is kind of what I gathered with my research.

Talk to me about Latvalla please.....Seems like he has talent. Eager to have a better season than last. Potential rally winner if the car is right?

Additionally, Lappi taking the place of Hanninen next year? Seems that Latvalla took his spot this year--for good reason, but still took his spot.

Finally, without the exit of Volkswagen and the addition of Latvalla, Toyota would be hurting in the cockpit it seems...

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Yes if VW was still in I'd be confident Toyota would be the weakest team. They may still be, but no one can deny that Latvala is capable of winning one or two rallies every year. But no more - his 16 wins have come in basically 11 years' full time WRC driving. He is very consistent in his inconsistency. He is fast, crashes a lot, breaks the car a lot, and occasionally avoids those pitfalls and wins.

Toyota had always said they were treating this year as Hyundai and VW (through their year when Ogier ran in a Super 2000 Fabia while they developed their first WRC car) treated their first year rallying - development, not results. But they chose Latvala, who is a good driver but appears to have reached the limits of his ability about 8 years ago, if you want to be harsh. They could have concentrated on developing a younger driver Lappi who might go farther with experience. Maybe that's their plan and they'll enter him in most rallies.

What really puzzles me is why they didn't leap for Mikkelson, who was championship runner up last year, over Latvala. N.O.T will tell you it's Finnish networking/chauvinism from the Finn-led, Finland based team.

Hanninen is a journeyman but he is the best journeyman I can think of - he's been champion in several minor classes, but not many chances in WRC. I would not expect wins. But then, I said that about Meeke, who also got his proper WRC chance quite late in his career, and he's grabbed a few.

As you are a Toyota fan I'd advise you to look to this year as a show of potential for the future at best. In my opinion the team will have a better chance of excelling with younger, less-tested drivers beyond that. Latvala is exciting and likeable but everyone who has watched the years of his career knows he will not bring them championships and crashes out enough not to be a solid points getter.

After 8 pages, I actually have some questions for you, Revman, if you don't mind :)

What's your background related to motorsport? Why the Toyota fandom?
How did you hear about WRC? What made you get into it?

To add a bit about the drivers: Hanninen was chosen for his development skills and is driving this year more as a test driver/reference. Lappi was chosen because he's an up and coming star that showed good speed, even if he is crash prone, Makinen probably hopes he can groom him to be more consistent. After VW thing Latvala was basically an available more experienced Lappi with good testing/setup skills.

Talking of outside assistance, there was a funny incident on Rally Telemark in Norway this autumn where a driver first says on the radio that he's been filling air in a tyre at gas stations, then drives back into service to fix something after already leaving TC out! Yet no punishment...