Unless Malcolm's sixth chakra has changed, I'm afraid Ott will be "asked" to play the "points insurance" game, something young drivers like him don't like.
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Unless Malcolm's sixth chakra has changed, I'm afraid Ott will be "asked" to play the "points insurance" game, something young drivers like him don't like.
Since his name is not national I will say here what I've already written on the italian rally thread: Kalle Rovanper is rumored to go driving in italian championship with Skoda Fabia R5.
The only actual obstacle is the italian authority that should give permission to Kalle to drive in the competitive sections (no way he could do it in normal streets).
I don't think he will be in time for the first event in less than 3 weeks...
Anyway the italian championship will give him some mileage in asphalt and very technical rallies. Something also Hirvonen and Latvala did when they was young guns.
Don't be afraid, it's not that scary. Of course there will be times when they play the team game, to imply that's a M-Sport specific thing either shows that you have an axe to grind or that you don't know much about the sport. I don't think that game will be "stay in fourth" unless Ott renews his old habit of crashing on too many occasions. It's more likely to be "you're second behind Seb, 30 seconds back, stop pushing so hard".
Team orders make sense a lot of times though, Citroen understand it, Hyundai understand it (although don't really have to apply it much) and it won't take many more balls ups by Hanninen before Tommi has to have a word in his ear about getting to the end of an event on the first try. Teams can't afford to keep repairing cars to enter under Rally 2 or whatever it's called these days.