2022 WRC News & Rumours

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Originally Posted by Danny0405

No changes for the big names to be precisebut not a real surprise:
- the big 4 has a contract for next year
- M-Sport has not really proven to be an efficient solution against Hyundai or Toyota (reliability issue and, without support, they cannot keep up in terms of development so Neuville and Tanak are forced to stay in Hyundai

Then, for Toyota, with Katsuta, Lappi or Ogier, it’s clearly enough to find a solution for the 3rd car so logical to make with them (not talking about 4th car).
And for M-Sport, they have invested in Breen by making the full-year with him; would be a non-sense to fire him for next year IMO.

But then, there could be some changes for the Hyundai 3rd car and also in M-Sport line-up because clearly, neither Solberg nor Fourmaux are convincing and Loubet is not that good.
Could help some guys like Mikkelsen or Suninen to come back or a guy like Rossel, Lindholm or Huttunen (depending on the money) finding a seat.

And if Lappi has not a safe seat in Toyota for next year, why not seeing Hyundai trying to hire him.

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why you confirm tanak have the contract for 2023 ，

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Originally Posted by 1988senna

why you confirm tanak have the contract for 2023 ，

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you have other info?

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Originally Posted by 1988senna

why you confirm tanak have the contract for 2023 ，

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When Ott and Thierry signed the new contracts in 2021, which for both were announced at the same time, Hyundai's press release said that they "have put pen to paper to sign extended multi-year contracts". So was it 2+1 or 3(+), it was definitely more than just the 2022 season.

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Originally Posted by Danny0405

However, I would be really disappointed by Toyota if they do not have a 4th car for at least the European rounds with a 5-6 rally program for a youngster such as Rossel or Lindholm (and 2/3 rounds for Ogier eventually). I’ve no issue with them having a car mainly driven by a Japanese as long as it is compensated by giving some chance to another deserving youngster. Not really a behavior to develop rally as Toyoda is promoting.

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Also they are developing japanise youngsters in european rallies, hard to believe one will not land in the 4th car someday. don't think as soon as next season, but this will keep the second team alive imo.

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Originally Posted by wyler

Also they are developing japanise youngsters in european rallies, hard to believe one will not land in the 4th car someday. don't think as soon as next season, but this will keep the second team alive imo.

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That is interesting. Do you have some names of those japanise youngsters?
And what about Sami Pajari, he clearly is the next big thing coming of the current WRC2-3 youngsters

https://www.ewrc-results.com/final/7...rt-ralli-2022/

Yuki Yamamoto, Nao Otake and Hikaru Kogure. They all competed in this local rally last weekend and did pretty well! However, it's a long program and they are still only in FWD Rally4 cars. I would say they will have a year of Rally3 and hopefully two years of Rally2 before going up to Rally1.

Sami Pajari had an incredible run in Rally Finland, except for breaking the suspension on Saturday. But on Sunday in super rally he was the fastest driver of the day although Suninen and Lindholm were still battling for the win.

Katsuta is a consistent point scorer this year so I can see him driving 3rd car.

Hyundai 3rd car is the main open question, especially if Sordo really retires.

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Originally Posted by wyler

Also they are developing japanise youngsters in european rallies, hard to believe one will not land in the 4th car someday. don't think as soon as next season, but this will keep the second team alive imo.

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I know about the 3 young Japanese but no way we can see him in a Rally1 WRC drive before at least 2025 and more probably 2026 (they are only competing in Rally4 so far in some Finnish events, probably some Rally3 or 2 next year).
It lets at least 2 years where they can use the 4th car for other youngsters.
For Pajari, it is probably a bit early, at least one full-year in Rally2 (we can imagine 4 rounds with M-Sport if he wins J-WRC and then, the rest of European rallies with Toksport ... except if M-Sport makes him a big «*offer*» to keep him).

Yes, too early for Pajari, he has only started three rounds in Rally2, and only two of them in WRC(2). So he needs the experience anyway. But I would say he's the next new top class talent. For example Lindholm seems to have hit a some sort of plateau.

Out of current WR2C talents who hasn't yet been a top class driver, Huttunen is closest to being the real deal. Of course there's guys like Mikkelsen and Suninen who have already been there.

Did you forget Rossel?

His problem might be that Fourmaux and Loubet are likely competiting for lot of the same funding.