Actually I am kind of happy about this.
Huttunen doing a "Suninen" on Hyundai after getting constantly ignored no matter results? But where to, it doesn't seem he has money.
"For free" in Fiesta Rally2? Doesn't sound like very good deal either.
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https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/exper...m-sport-breen/
Breen basically repeats what we said here. That "one driver" team at MSport, just like Citroen was in 2017 might be quite risky.
Interestingly though Loeb only ever drove for Citroen, even though with 4 different cars.
Weird things, when Huttunen was aiming to drive in Hungary. Is it something that Adamo was so happy, when Solans drove to the finish and on the good level that wanted to see him in Hungary instead of Huttunen, who was so slow in Spain (Of course not willing to accept that there was a broken engine in Hyundai)...
The plan was that Huttunen will drive in Greece, but suddenly the entry was cancelled without the reason (a lack of i20 N Rally2 might be one). During these years we have seen that Adamo is not trusting Huttunen despite the fact that he has been almost the only driver to get good results behind the wheel of the i20 R5.
Maybe Grönholm and Huttunen are now completely fed up playing with Adamo anymore and the only way was a contact with M-Sport. Of course they have to pay, but is was not free at Hyundai also, so not very different situation.
Also M-Sport will definitely need top WRC2 driver to achieve at least some results with the Rally2 car next year. On tarmac it´s also possible and maybe Huttunen is able to develop car on gravel. With this situation it would be also possible that Jari could finally drive World Rally Car / Rally1 car in WRC event...
Mikkelsen has been around so long now and without really showing WRC rally-winning speed since the end of his VW days.
He's a nice guy but I'm not sure he still has the hunger to get to the top. He seems to be more of a social media star and you could say even with a bit of a playboy image.
Current generation World Rally Cars will be permitted to compete in next year’s World Rally Championship with a reduced power output
https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...2022-/6688263/
He really missed the boat in 2017, for whatever reason. Right now he's in a weird spot where he's neither an up and coming young driver nor a proven top driver. Also remember that he has had quite a bit of experience at the top level so you could also consider him a "known quantity" by now. The real problem is probably not so much that others are chosen before Mikkelsen but that there are not enough WRC seats available.
36 mm restrictor means 1017 mm2 area. 33,7 mm restrictor means 892 mm2. That means the area is reduced to 88%. I can't see how they calculated the power loss to only 30 Hp with 12% less air. IMHO it must be more. That would also make sense because with only 30 Hp reduction the cars would definitely get in the fight with the new cars when driven by proper drivers and when having favourable conditions (road position, tyre selection, weather etc.). I don't think FIA wants that. In my opinion 30 Hp reduction would be too little to remove them from mixing with the new ones even if the new cars were supposed to be as fast as the current ones.
If we see Ford as the most viable chance Mikkelsen has for a seat, even Breen said it would be funny if he alone was supposed to be the experienced driver in the team besides Greensmith and Fourmaux. Mikkelsen has at least a bunch of experience from Skôda, Ford, VW, Citroën and Hyundai, and could function as a mentor together with Breen for Fourmaux (and Greensmith if shared cars). The other option would be Loeb.