So who will be replaced by Solberg in Toyota next year? Pajari?
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So who will be replaced by Solberg in Toyota next year? Pajari?
Congratulations Oliver and Elliott Very well done
A very well deserved title to Oliver Solberg winning the WRC2 Championship. Big Congrats to Oliver, Eliott and the whole team!
Will Ogier retire in case of 9th tittle this year?
No, then he needs to be BETTER than Loeb. 9th makes them just level.Quote:
Originally Posted by CeskyOndra
He will never be better than Loeb, maybe statisticallyQuote:
Originally Posted by meh
But he did it with 3 different teams.Quote:
Originally Posted by meh
In this term it has been a nice powerstage - everyone is pushing like hell.
Whoever laughed at Ogier at the finish of Paraguay.. he meant it seriously. That is a statement.
66 wins from 200 starts. That is some statement as well.
Plenty of craziness left in Ogier. Wow !
9 rallies started, 5 won. one 3th place as worst result.
no, i don't think kalle or ott would have been able to beat him if he did a full season in the same car.
Meanwhile
* happy for Fourmaux for the podium
* happy for Pajari for the pace and fight on that level
I think Ogier knowing he didn’t have to do Sweden, Kenya & Estonia helped him a bit. Also no Hybrid makes him seem as if he’s in that Polo R again.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
You are retroactively applying Ogier's great form of 2025 to the past, trying to overwrite his worse form with Pirelli hybrid car in 2022-2024. That's not how it works. Ogier was slower and more inconsistent in the past 3 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by denkimi
So now it’s a Toyota mash up, if Evans doesn’t bin it like in ‘23 in CER he might have a shot, I’d say Rovanperä is out of it not completely but like you guys said, he seems not too fussed about it. See you guys in CER!!
Ogier is goat. His PS driving was bonkers.
Overall, WRC is in bad state: Toyota absolutely dominating, then comes gap before Hyundai which works in very specific conditions, breaks down and destroys tyres, then walk to moon and back comes MSport.
If Ogier gets 9th world title, hope He will go for 10th to beat Loeb.
And Loeb will be there to challenge him :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Negaiss
Also if he will win the 9th title, he will win it in a ''part season'', with 3 different teams.Quote:
Originally Posted by CeskyOndra
With what, Lancia? or Dacia? Imagine that story, secretly already building a car.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dontcut
Non of them will not drive anything rally2 bulls*it in 2027. So Ogier 100% will come to 2026 to make WDC counts by 2 digitsQuote:
Originally Posted by deephouse
So after 11 rounds we have 10 wins for Toyota and 1 for Hyundai. If they win the remaining 3 rallies, they could even beat the VW record of 2014 and 2015, when they won 12 out of 13 rounds.
Ogier is the favourite for the title, but Evans has been super consistent. A mistake or a technical problem for Ogier could swing things around.
Kalle is not out yet, but a lot depends on his asphalt performance. He was unbeatable in Canarias even for Ogier and Evans, but we know Canarias is a special asphalt event. We have to see how it translates into CER and Japan. Then there's Saudi, which could have massive cleaning.
Hyundais are out of it, just not good enough.
I really like this rally. Good stages, variable conditions, nice contrast between the farmland stages on Friday and the forestry stages on Saturday/Sunday.
Ogier - Nothing much to say, incredible.
Evans - Really good drive, he’s just not Ogier and that’s not his fault.
Fourmaux - Good effort, no mistakes. Shame Hyundai dropped the ball Sat/Sun. Beat Neuville over those 2 days with same road position, so he did ok against the only person we can directly compare him to.
Neuville - Good powerstage
Pajari - Good run, decent speed.
Rovanpera - Good for a few stages until the puncture. Lacklustre thereafter.
Katsuta - Either too slow or too fast. Ragged when he goes fast enough and makes mistakes.
Munster - Not bad, for him. Watching his onboards, he drivers the car nicely, just not quick enough, like he doesn’t like the car twitching around on the edge to get the speed out of it.
McErlean - Disaster. Ultimately I think he has more potential than Munster though.
Loeb in 2006 didn't compete in 4 events.Quote:
Originally Posted by deephouse
And with a "private" team.Quote:
Originally Posted by trykmann
I am well aware of the current regulations, thank you.Quote:
Originally Posted by JAM
You stated that they were stupid, so I was asking what you would replace them with.
It’s actually shocking when you lay it out like that. Clearly in the switch to non-hybrid and Hankook, Toyota have done a better job of adapting their car.Quote:
Originally Posted by focus206
Cleaning in Saudi won't matter at all. I heard it will be all about survival.. It's worse than Turkey was..Quote:
Originally Posted by focus206
So Tanak didnt retire from a rally. It's mean use weak Sweden engine for next 3 rally or +5min at CER for 3rd engine?
Why would they replace him now? Used all the money to let him gain the experience and then sack, just as his speed is improving. He will have another year for sure, more likel is that Ogier finally retiresQuote:
Originally Posted by CeskyOndra
I expected it to be sandy with cleaning, like some rallies in the Middle East... I guess it could be rockier than I thoughtQuote:
Originally Posted by CeskyOndra
Definitely. Which is a shame, because last year Hyundai was much closer to Toyota, although still a bit slower and more unreliable. This year, not a chance. And the gap we saw in Canarias was straight up embarassing for them.Quote:
Originally Posted by doubled1978
Was it really much closer? IMHO it is exactly the same. This year Rovanpera and especially Ogier haven't binned (like in 2024) and Hyundai just falls apart in Ott's case (here in Chile, in Safari (broken driveshaft), Portugal (power steering). All these have come from rally lead. How many technical failures can you name from Toyota side? One can argue, that Ott is driving too roughly but this is the only way you can drive against Toyota if you want to win.Quote:
Originally Posted by focus206
Other problems for Tänak this year... In Monte there was also steering issue, Sweden engine issue (oil on the windscreen), Spain.. was just pain. Don't know what car did Hyundai bring there but this one wasn't a Rally1 car. in Greece gearbox, in Paraguay he had a puncture being really close to lead. Ok, this can happen to anyone but the pattern his here. Maybe there was something more but these came in my mind first.
TL;DR Really hard to be a Tänak fan.
Punctures are also in some cases the drivers fault, but still the car died on a water crossing and the front damper broke on the powerstage in Paraguay. These faults played a major role in the overall Sunday points classification.Quote:
Originally Posted by flat_right
Last year I don't remember any major (meaning causing the loss of several minutes or superrally) technical trouble for Tanak, his misfortunes came from elsewhere. Neuville had broken fuel pump in Safari and broken turbo in Japan. As for the 3rd driver, I remember Lappi with a broken driveshaft in Safari and looking at ewrc-results, he seemed to have more technical trouble at the end of the season, but honestly I don't remember if those were consequences of mistakes.Quote:
Originally Posted by flat_right
And speed wise too, Hyundai last year didn't feel ages behind Toyota, even with Ogier driving at the end of the season.
It makes you wonder if Tanak can really go through another year like this with fault after fault on the Hyundai. Here in Chile was yet another rally he could/should have won only to be denied by his car.
I suppose he might continue in 2026 with Hyundai if he cant get into Toyota, but it may just be going through the motions and picking up the money before probable retirement.
We could have more info or closer monitoring what is going on in the cars, at least they ''promised'' it would be kinda like that. We can only assume it's more or less Hyundai's fault than drivers. But basing on Tanak's onboards he is always so agressive. Just calling for accident or things to broke. But hey, the car should already be made like tank, but I think it's every year worse. Even after 11 years and combined with earlier attempts: around 16 years in the sport.
Tanak doesn’t aggressive style. Stop it already.
Yeah he did before 2018 but after a year together with Ogier it changed
At least in Portugal he did. Ogier said this and also FX told that https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/hyund...ering-failure/Quote:
Originally Posted by EstWRC
When he has a margin, he is one of the smoothest drivers but if he has to really push to beat someone, then...
And I guess last year he didn't drive anywhere agressively, especially there, when he bin it completely on several ocassions