Originally Posted by
racerx1979
The steering issue they had was a bad one to be honest. One thing a lot of people do not know is that Toyota team has been briefed to keep calm about vehicle issues. They do not want the brand to be hurt so they try to be very politically correct during interviews, but in the background it's a different story. In hot weather rallies they have a ton of issues... I mean everything from overheating dampers, hydraulic issues and fuel problems. With hydraulics they have had handbrake, brake, power steering issues and other issues.
A lot of issues unfortunately are trial and error. M-Sport and Citroen knows what works and what doesn't based on past experience. With Toyota they are young and learning many things now. No excuses, but these things take time and as easy at it seems some components work as a group and it's not as easy as just replacing a single component and all things are good.
JML's steering literally locked in place and he was not able to move it at all. This is similar to what happened to Tanak. They have had issues where the PS system gets too hot and they will break a tooth in the rack and pinion causing the system to lock and eventually fail. At the end of the day they would have had two Toyota's in the podium if it were not for these issues. TGR is a young team by all means and what makes it difficult is that they're a new team. It's not like Citroen taking a few years off and coming back... they still have their faithful suppliers unlike Toyota who is dealing with suppliers for a first time and many of these components are part of the TGR group who do not have WRC experience.
I honestly think if Toyota had it all figured out these last few years would be boring as they would dominate the scene. At this rate the only way Neuville and Ogier will win is due to TGR issues... similar to last year and the year before with JML's issues.