Kubica in?
Lappi and Suninen stays?
Mikkelsen?
More WRC privateers?
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Kubica in?
Lappi and Suninen stays?
Mikkelsen?
More WRC privateers?
It depends on the budget how good the fiesta is next year, and wich drivers they get is probably down to how good the fiesta is compared to Toyota and Hyundai.
Citröen is maybe the same?
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Suninen out Mikkelsen in.
All private drivers in Alpine for some real challenge and show!
Hope someone else can pay for a Ford seat over shitbox Greensmith.
Kubica though - bring it on.
That'd be a great idea! Alpine funding paid drives in something similar to the BMW M1 Procar Championship of late seventies that supported F1, but with 5 or 6 guys out of a paid drive in the WRC, plus whatever privateers want to pay to have a go at them. Imagine an Alpine nations cup, 6 rounds, with Meeke, Camilli, Abbring, Latvala, Kubica, Suninen/Lappi/Mikkelsen...
Imo nothing will change at MSport.
All 3 current drivers are in one way or another bringing money in. Though maybe Lappi's ex-Citroen funding will stop at end of this year?
For outside "young" drivers I am not sure how attractive it is to drive at MSport with what now seems like the clearly slowest of the 3 cars (both due to lack of testing and development). Maybe a better idea to try to get a some drives with others (see Loubet and Veiby recently).
For Mikkelsen specifically it might be better to do a Rally2 season with some manu paying it and wait for 2022 (he is still young agewise).
An interesting joker here is the new 2022 rules. MSport has a history of having best allround car the first years after new rules come out (2017 rules, 1.6l rules with Fiesta, but also 2006 Focus). There are also clear historical examples of how this kickstarted the career of multiple drivers that were struggling until then (Tanak, Neuville, Hirvonen) So getting a better chance of starting at MSport in 2022 might be an extra reason to be interested in MSport.
As for M-Sport's perspective, they should get some good driver to develop the 2022 car? Or who did they use to make the great 2017 car? Tänak? At least Eric Camilli did a lot of testing.
Kubica / Kajetanowicz ???
https://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2...HU9VnCd_9jsTmY
Jouhki is Suninen´s manager, so he will drive next year, most probably MSport car.
As a fact we know that TGR will continue with Evans, Ogier and Rovanperä + Katsuta
We don´t know are they renting for others than "Legends" or JML
What's with all the Greensmith hate? He's a rookie with a sponsor paying for that drive, we'd have one less car if he wasn't there.
I suppose Toyota is all set to stay as is. At Hyundai I think only Neuville and Tanak are set, will the third car be shared by Sordo and Breen?
At MSport realistically it will be a cost/benefit type of deal. I'd be curious to see Mikkelsen in the Ford.
The thing is...if Gus didn't drive this season, it would be just two M-Sport cars. If they had had a third car, for, let's say, Mikkelsen, Gus would have just been in the fourth car. He doesn't take away anyone's seat. If anything, helps keeping the team in the business.
But I agree it's frustrating to see him being so slow from year to another, and still believing(?) to be a top driver some day.
Greensmith's pace in 2020
Monte: Once 5th on a stage, being faster than Rovanperä, Suninen and Loeb; faster than Suninen on another stage, otherwise slowest WRC.
Mexico: Slowest WRC on all desert stages except once faster than Rovanperä (don't remember if Rovanperä had an issue here)
Estonia: Mostly slowest WRC or among the slowest ones, often slower than total newbie Loubet! Only once faster than Lappi (the second time Lappi spun)
Turkey: Mostly slowest WRC or among the slowest ones, only once faster than Lappi who was on the wrong settings.
Sardegna: Mostly slowest WRC or among the slowest ones, managed to be faster than Evans and Ogier on day1 when they were cleaning the road.
I think his biggest achievement was managing through the Cetibeli stage in Turkey where almost everyone had a puncture. Meanwhile, a very embarrassing crash in Monte and some spins in Estonia as well as an off on the shakedown in Turkey.
Lappi, Suninen and Rovanperä took only 1-2 events in the WRC car to win their first stage and show rally winning pace. Greensmith has been "learning" for already 1,5 years. He wasn't that impressive in WRC2 either, only won two events (Monte and Turkey 2019). I don't expect him to ever get faster than this.
Remember when KIMI was driving ?
Nearly everyone here said that he doesn´t belong to WRC...
Now people are understanding that this sport needs all possible drivers
Those "rich" ones aren´t taking any places off from young talents.
btw. I think Fergus is slow, MSport should have real 3rd driver. Same system for Fergus/Katsuta/Loubet = 4/5th car.
Kimi, Kubica and Rossi etc have the potential to cross over fans from other motorsports, thus they are important and welcome
Greensmith clearly has talent and isnt just driving around. He also has big mitigation in that he hasnt done full seasons to learn all the events, he has a car that isnt the fastest (unlike the other rookies) and the team hasnt been able to gve him any testing this year either.
And look at the years it took Tanak and Evans to be fully-competitive even with several full seasons in WRC.
Let's look!
Tänak's first WRC car event was Wales 2011. On SS12 he was 3rd fastest, beating the likes of Ogier, Østberg, Sordo, Meeke and Novikov. In his third WRC start, Sweden 2012, he won a stage.
Elfyn also was 2nd and 4th on stages in Monte 2014, his second WRC start.
These are already better than Greensmith has done in his eight starts.
It's true that it takes years to become a regular podium finisher or winner, and not all get there ever. But any driver to become should be able to show even occasional bursts of speed earlier on. Even Lefebvre won a few stages!
To be fair, I have the same feeling about Katsuta, I doubt he will progress much from the current level, even with this much practice.
and Tänaks debut was on Dmacks ;)
Gus will get maybe some podiums with luck or when circumstances go on his way but on pure speed i dont see him gettin one, at least not at the moment.
Doesnt seem very talented guy, same with Loubet for me.
The next big things and fast guys are Solberg and Rovanpera, Gryazin maybe too, he has been bit disappointing this year
Mikkelsen should use some of his budget to get in at Msport.
Hyundai is blocked for him, and Toyota have overlooked him even when his stock was at his highest which was years ago....
They'll need a 3rd driver to replace Ogier in 2022, but Evans and Kalle will be their two main drivers and the Japanese could bring JML back in for a split season with someone like Oliver Solberg.
Mikkelsen should bring money for a drive in a rally 1 car, even if it's just for 6 events. Prove he can beat Lappi and Suninen, and he will then not only get a look in at Msport for 2022, but he could get a chance to test and develop the new 2022 car. And in 22, Msport might be the place to be. They seem to always start well with a new car, before being caught and surpassed in the development a few years down the line.
Ref. Mikkelsen in MSport.
While what er88 wrote is an option I am not 100% convinced it's the best idea.
The most likely outcome with that car is that he would be faster than Lappi and Suninen but clearly slower than all factory Toyotas and Hyundais and sometimes even slower than their "customer" cars (see Katsuta in Estonia this year).
Furthermore sometimes the internal competition would be decided by road position ( see Suninen vs Lappi in Mexico this year).
If it goes like this will he be more likely to be picked than the fastest "new" Rally2 drivers?
The other option is to drive in Rally2 against those new drivers and prove that he is faster than them. There the risk is that he will be just a little faster than them so the "younger" drivers get picked due to more "potential".
No easy call. His best chance would definitely be with a new manu as a safe pick to perform on all rallies. But doesn't look like any new manus are coming.
Rich Millener:
'We’ve always said even if you went into a WRC car it’s probably a three-to-four-year process once you step into that car before you’re actually competitive at the top end. You look at somebody like Kalle who’s been doing a huge amount of testing, he’s putting in some incredible times and he probably could have won a rally this year at some point but there are small mistakes which comes with just having more and more and more time and experience in the car and not only the car but understanding the stages that you’re in and not making any mistakes.
The top guys are on the top level in the world so to get to that point is not easy.'
Like I said, Kalle is in the level where he can show rally winning pace from time to time but not still consistent enough to win rallies. Tänak and Evans were there also quite quickly after getting into WRC. Greensmith is still far from that level.
Come on, that's too harsh. I'm sure they really think there's some more in greensmith to check out. And he showed some rare glimpse. I remember some good time in Germany and a good afternoon loop in Monte this year. Not nearly enough for sure, i think definitely isn't there yet, but maybe he can improve his pace to a good second-tier driver. I'd give him more time.
And btw, some style of sunglasses in wrc can't harm! : )
Monte I already checked out, only one or two stages where he wasn't the slowest WRC and also an embarrassing crash.
Germany 2019 however went better, he was constantly closer to the main pack and much faster than Katsuta, also being able to beat the likes of Lappi and Mikkelsen a couple of times when they were struggling with their cars, and also being faster than Meeke and Latvala on one short stage. But he also crashed there.
He can take as he wants (or as long as the funds allow) to get up to speed. He’s a pay driver, after all.
I’m just convinced he’s not going to do anything at all.
M-sport will play whatever tune needs playing to keep him in the car.... it’s all just pound notes to them.