Rally Italia Sardinia 2017

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Originally Posted by wrc2017

Maybe do no harm..
But it looks like without Meeke the car would have been classified to Room 101 long before now.

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But does it help anything to crash it everytime? The answer is simple - no. It costs money, it takes plenty of working hours to rebuild the cars again and again, it brings health and lives in risk and it brings neither points nor testing data. And finally it gives no real wake-up call to the team that something is fundametally wrong when they see some good times and after that a crash (of course it is possible that the team would try to replace drivers first - in a way Škoda did in their WRC times but sooner or later they must realize that the car is uncompetitive if nobody delivers).

Just reading back the people's comments here from this morning seeing so many with support and sympathy for Neuville for not 'taking advantage' of Ogier's puncture.
So Ogier has to open the road and have problems in order for Neuville to catch him in the Championship. Not very sporting..

Most of us here, have pointed a finger to C3's deficiencies since Sweden.Too much drag/ not enough downforce on the front and serious suspension issues.Meeke isn't doing himself any favors by trying to overdrive this car, which 9 times out of 10 ends in tears.It looks like Mikkelsen (who has a bad mindset to be fair, but thats another discussion..) is just trying to bring the car home at the safest pace possible.Major changes are needed for Citroen to be truly competitive again.

If he was driving at Mikkelson pace he'd be sacked. If he drove at the limitation of the car, maybe where Breen is at, people would be questioning his ability. Ive watched the video and seen the images and the fact is the rear of the car steps out of line on a flat rh corner while following the clean line of drivers infront. Its not as if he was over committing. If an accident can happen on that corner.. then it can happen on 100 others every day.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

But does it help anything to crash it everytime? The answer is simple - no. It costs money, it takes plenty of working hours to rebuild the cars again and again, it brings health and lives in risk and it brings neither points nor testing data. And finally it gives no real wake-up call to the team that something is fundametally wrong when they see some good times and after that a crash.

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If the C3 is that bad on gravel how did Meeke win in Mexico ?

Autosport:
'It was no flash-in-the-pan, no running-order miracle. The speed was coming from the C3 working very well on gravel, where the WRC spends five of its next six rounds.'

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Originally Posted by Mirek

When did he say that?

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There are bits after flying finish on every stage onboard, before they turn off the intercom. Didn't hear the exact quotes SubaruNorway wrote but it was generally in that direction.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

I prefer to be careful with blaming him for that. It is possible that the Citroën engineers just know better if You understand what I mean.

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Well true. Impreza S12 and then S14 does come to mind. "Rally cars are getting so complicated that drivers can't understand them". Think it was David Lapworth who said that.

Makes the whole Citroen thing smell more and more like Subaru and we know how that went.

Exactly...amazing! :)

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Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC

If the C3 is that bad on gravel how did Meeke win in Mexico ?

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He got seriously lucky on the final corner, remember that.A metre to the left or to the right and the C3 goes head on the parked vehicles..

Clearly it can be fast sometimes, remember that in mexico all others had overheating issues. Anyway on quite a few stages gravel stages and even powerstage in Sweden Meeke was on par with Ogier/Neuville/Latvala without it looking like some epic attack.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

When did he say that?



Do You believe overdriving a slow car until the point of uncontrolled accident is a good thing? The car may be bad but pushing it into a big crash everytime is a pure gamble. Moreover a gamble which helps nothing.

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+1

Meeke has an perfect example how things should be done and that example is Ogier. OK, the Ford isnt bad as Citroen but clearly Ogier struggled with the car in the beginning of the season and is struggling again this rally. But the master chose the pace he could afford and is still leading the championship and has two wins.


Urmo Aavas prediction before the season was right, he said Meeke and Hanninen are too old to change and he expects them to continue like they did and it rightly has been so.