I was honestly surprised he picked to do GB in the WRC, he seemed a bit lost here last year and got beaten by Kalle. Hope he does well though, obviously.
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I was honestly surprised he picked to do GB in the WRC, he seemed a bit lost here last year and got beaten by Kalle. Hope he does well though, obviously.
Loving it how some people on this forum don't see any problem with other drivers taking YEARS to produce results (Tanak for example), but Tidemand is expected to go superfast on his THIRD rally EVER (and in 8 months) in the new car.
Ridiculous.
Not everybody can do a Lappi and win in his fourth rally.
What is a bit underwhelming though, I agree, is his distance in time to the middle of the field when given strong starting position, on home soil in Sweden and on certain stages in Turkey this weekend.
He needs to show times closer to/sometimes faster than Suninen/Mikkelsen/Breen in Wales, when given proper starting position... it's either that or difficult to see why sponsors should keep spending money on him in 2020... :(
Hes got a problem that Greensmith has looked better on his outings.
You quite honestly have mixed up speed and results. Lot of young guns have showed flashes of speed while not produced results.
Quite frankly Pontus hasn't done neither of them and it's worrysome as he seemed very promising in the lower classes.
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I think you mix up different drivers situations.
Some drivers have full backup finacially and just have to concentrate on driving without thinking of consequences. Some have funding problems and gets random drives and still expected to be close to the top.
Turkey was PT first gravel event in WRC17 car. What did we expect? Honestly, I did expect him to be even closer. But thinking it over one more time, you have to see the whole picture. Turkey, one of the hardest events, and we want PT to be top five?
That wasn´t fair to expect.
He needed miles and miles in that car. He got it now. We have to wait for Wales and then judge him.
But still - all guys in WRC have had so much more drives before they started getting proper times, believe me.
i think nobody expected him to be TOP 5 on this event. what i want to see from him is some speed from time to time, but so far nothing...im sorry but all the outings have been disappointing for me so far.
im not writing him off but like cali said, he seemed so promising in lower classes.
Exactly! In the times when Loeb, Ogier, Tanak or Mikkelsen were starting their careers it was possible to drive WRC cars without being in a factory team. I think Mikkelsen had had over 30 starts in a WRC car before he joined a factory team. Now it is actually impossible to drive a current WRC car as a private driver. Both Tidemand and Greensmith are victims of this situation. They have to learn this car during a WRC rally.
Have a look, Mikkelsen was driving a WRC car already in 2006, 7 years before joining Volkswagen Motorsport in WRC, he had plenty of experience:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/profile...eas-mikkelsen/
Neuville first WRC drives in 2012:
- Monte 5th on SS3, crash on SS4
- Sweden good times only on super specials
- Mexico top five times on the first stages
Tänak first WRC drives in 2011-2012
- Wales 6th on first gravel stage. Best stage result 3rd, 6th overall
- Monte 8th overall, best stage result 4th
- Sweden mostly out of pace, best stage results 6th and 5th
- Mexico 3rd on the power stage, 5th overall
Ogier won his first stage in a WRC car in Wales 2008.
Suninen won his fifth stage in a WRC car in Poland 2017
Lappi won multiple stages and the power stage in his second rally in a WRC car in Sardegna 2017