2022 WRC News & Rumours

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Originally Posted by mknight

Did you forget Rossel?

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

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For me, Rossel is in the game with Lindholm and Huttunen if a young driver (with no Top-class experience I mean, excluding Huttunen’s outing in Finland) has to be promoted but he has multiple issues against him:
- as you said, clearly, there is the funding issue with multiple aspects: the fact that he is a Stellantis guy so he will not benefit from a manufacturer help for Rally1 + as you said, the potential conflicts with Loubet and Fourmaux to find fundings (such as FFSA help=French Federation) even if these two guys for the moment (especially Fourmaux) won’t benefit from their season. The only positive point for him is that he has Yacco’s help this year (former main sponsor of Fourmaux which helped him to step in RC1) whereas he was really short some years in the past. But, yeah, FFSA’s help will be probably critical next year for a Frenchman to stay one way or another (full-time or part-time) in M-Sport main team and probably the FFSA will have to make a choice between the 3 guys.
- if rumors about the calendar is correct with less tarmac and even if he has improved on technical gravel, he will be clearly a disadvantage for him against his competitors like Loubet, Lindholm or Huttunen.
- between him and Lindholm, there is not a big gap and they sound a step behind Mikkelsen (with Huttunen not that far also and sounds more easy on funding). So he is not a no-brainer choice.

Still I really hope he could have an opportunity.

Well I don't think any new young driver has a big chance of anything but a start or two next year.

The current Rally1 lineups are kind of over-saturated with "fresh" drivers. Even though most of them don't deliver it is either too early for them to be replaced and/or there are other reasons keeping them there. (money for Greensmith for example).

Sadly for Huttunen he kinda falls between rock and a hard place again. Gotta say he has some really bad luck with timing in his career.

I want to see Rossel do well on a fast gravel or snow event before giving him the credit as a proper talent.

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

I want to see Rossel do well on a fast gravel or snow event before giving him the credit as a proper talent.

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Good point.
I see he only did Estonia in 2020 with terrible speed.

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

I want to see Rossel do well on a fast gravel or snow event before giving him the credit as a proper talent.

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Don’t agree on the fact that fast gravel/snow rally is evaluating raw talent. I don’t say these rallies worth nothing but don’t forget it represents only 3 rallies in the season, even looking on the long-term (with Poland at one time) which is less than tarmac or technical gravel. Always found these rallies overrated in terms of evaluation, rally is properly about multiple grounds
Sordo did a good career without never been good there. I prefer that than a Lappi or Paddon or Breen career

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Originally Posted by Danny0405

Don’t agree on the fact that fast gravel/snow rally is evaluating raw talent. I don’t say these rallies worth nothing but don’t forget it represents only 3 rallies in the season, even looking on the long-term (with Poland at one time) which is less than tarmac or technical gravel. Always found these rallies overrated in terms of evaluation, rally is properly about multiple grounds
Sordo did a good career without never been good there. I prefer that than a Lappi or Paddon or Breen career

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No, I would say the same if there would be a driver who wins on fast and slow gravel but has no results on tarmac. A champion contender must be good everywhere.

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

No, I would say the same if there would be a driver who wins on fast and slow gravel but has no results on tarmac. A champion contender must be good everywhere.

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true, just think about neuville...

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Originally Posted by Danny0405

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).

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indeed, just saying i would find strange if they ditch the second team (they even had a 5th bay in the service park this year)

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Originally Posted by AnttiL

No, I would say the same if there would be a driver who wins on fast and slow gravel but has no results on tarmac. A champion contender must be good everywhere.

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Ok, my mistake, I misunderstood your sentence

However, even if I hope I’m wrong, I don’t think any driver of the 94-98 WRC-2 generation (Rossel, Lindholm, Ingram, Gryazin, Huttunen or even Ciamin) to be championship-material driver; more see them at best a career such as Latvala or maybe more Sordo.
And the same for Fourmaux or Loubet (a bit more questionable about Solberg with the Hyundai context).
All the more with Kalle already at this level a lot above them.
However, it does not mean it’s useless for a team to try a driver like this; 3 members of the Big 4 will be 34+ at the end of the year and Breen is not that young considering his performance. So we can imagine big changes around 2024-2025 and having anticipated by giving some experience to a young guy could be an advantage.

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Originally Posted by wyler

true, just think about neuville...

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Neuville has won Rally Sweden and Rally Poland, although for some reason he hasn't done that well in Finland and Estonia in the recent years.