Anyway, this is very good for Markko, Ott and Estonian motorsport industry. Hopefully this will boost OT Racing's activities as well, but is it so that RG will be run solely from MMM HQ at Tallinn?
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Anyway, this is very good for Markko, Ott and Estonian motorsport industry. Hopefully this will boost OT Racing's activities as well, but is it so that RG will be run solely from MMM HQ at Tallinn?
discuss guys
Hyundai Motorsport and Red Gray Team formalized their union for the landing of the brand in WRC 2. The updated i20 R5 will be operated by the Estonian Markko Martin team, formerly called MM Motorsport. With this link, the representative of Ott Tänak and the WRC champion will go on to play a new key role in the rally client racing market, which handles large amounts of money in sales. In the background of this union, underlies an attempted frustrated agreement with Toyota.
The partnership formed between Hyundai Motorsport and Red Gray Team does not come by chance, but has developed a long history over the past year, linked in part to the hiring of Tänak. The current WRC champion is represented by Markko Martin, who at the same time is at the helm of MM Motorsport. This team, of which Tänak owns a small part, changed its name to Red Gray Team in 2020.
According to the European press, one of Martin's plans was to specify Tänak's arrival to the only 100% official WRC team. “Everything played a role in our decision. Leaving Toyota was difficult because, as a car manufacturer, they are involved in management-level rallies and want to do it big and correctly. But it was a private team, like M-Sport. Instead, Hyundai can be considered a factory team, ”Märtin told Delfi.
But this virtue of Hyundai is closely linked to another of the great secret plans: to find a manufacturer that will lead a new project in the R5 vehicle market.
Initially, he aimed to achieve the objective with Toyota, to develop his new Yaris R5, whose future launch would play an important role in the customer racing market for rally. But in November last year, the former pilot and Tänak representative denied this version.
“That story has been a complete invention. The same happened with the desire to represent R5 cars. All this is nonsense created by the Finnish media. I don't want to lead any team, nor is there any issue with R5 cars. Facing something like that would only mean an extra sacrifice and the income could only represent a minimal part of the contract. We have been working with our team for 15 years (N.de.R: MM Motorsport) and this is not something that should be changed by making extreme decisions. ”
Despite this, the Finnish driver Riku Tahko, owner of his homonymous team and columnist in the Yle media, was reluctant to believe Markko Martin's statements. On the contrary, he explained what were the reasons that truncated the initial project with Toyota and why the idea found its perfect niche in Hyundai.
“Markko's negotiation plan was for Tänak to drive, but his team, MM Motorsport, would get the rights to build the Toyota R5. It would have been a great deal! At that point, Ott's salary and contract would have been just a small drop in the ocean. ”
Tahko said the “R5 project” was also one of the great factors that has played a crucial role in the negotiations that led Ott Tänak and his representative, Markko Martin, to sign with Hyundai by 2020. “In the future we will see that there will be cooperation between MM Motorsport and Hyundai. The brand is developing its new R5 and I think MM Motorsport will be involved, ”the Finn had anticipated in November.
To graph the size of the commercial interests that were at stake in the negotiations between Hyundai Motorsport and the Markko Martin team, Tahko compared this case with those of Skoda Motorsport and M-Sport, the two leading sales structures, within the market of customer careers.
“The average price of an R5 car is € 250,000. Skoda has sold more than 300 R5 cars and M-Sport more than 200. Everyone knows how big this business is. Even Volkswagen has a queue of more than a year of orders with its Polo R5, ”said Tahko. “Right now, Toyota is the largest car manufacturer in the world and its World Rally Car is the fastest in the championship. Your Yaris R5 could be a very interesting product. ”
In the fall of 2019, Ott Tänak bought a small part of MM Motorsport, a team that at that time carried out the Toyota Gazoo Racing Rally Challenge, the Japanese driver training program that was driven by the aforementioned brand. Until 2018, Markko Martin's team competed with Hiroki Arai and Takamoto Katsuta, until the manufacturer opted for this last driver as the favorite to endorse.
“The collaboration between Tommi Makinen (N.de.R: Toyota Gazoo Racing director) and Märtin has started with R5 projects. MM Motorsport has been operating the Ford Fiesta R5 of Takamoto Katsuta for many years in the Toyota development program, which also included Hiroki Arai. I am sure that this big business has the R5 and Tänak in the background, ”explained Riku Tahko.
The Toyota project to create its Yaris R5 has been underway for a long time and Tommi Makinen himself had revealed it since April last year. However, Yle reported that since then there has been no progress.
“We do a lot of research on the R5 car. We have conducted market research and preparation. We still don't have a decision on how we are going to operate. The decision will probably come from Japan, ”Makinen had told Yle two months ago. “The finished R5 car will not be seen in action, at least in the near future. If it takes shape, it will take at least a couple of years, ”Makinen warned. "In any case, the R5 is not entirely planned"
According to Tahko's vision, “Toyota didn't have the right street car to build the R5. The previous Yaris engine was not the one for an R5 ”. However, the new version of the Japanese model, unveiled at the end of last year and presented at the Tokyo Auto Salon, already employs a new 1.6 three-cylinder engine.
Toyota sent a request to the FIA to achieve the authorization of this type of driving plants, although Rallye Magazin informed that the latest regulatory modifications on this type of mechanics will be approved on January 1, 2021, which will further delay the arrival of the new Yaris rally.
http://motorboxradio.com.ar/2020/01/...mercado-de-r5/
One can't blame Tanak for thinking long term. Look at the career trajectories of Martin, Wilson and Makinen. Going further there's Dave Richards or if you're really lucky Jean Todt.
It's a different thing to say "some other people have made up that I want do X" instead of "I haven't agreed on X" or "I cannot comment on X". It's just the same arrogance as Tänak had in late 2017 when he in his column despised people spreading rumors about him leaving M-Sport, or telling David Evans directly in the face that he's not leaving M-Sport.
With English subtitles now
Enjoy https://youtu.be/OQgVFKPWN2k
Ott Tänak | The road to Victory | The best of 2009 - 2019 [Passats de canto]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiZ3bBaAkjE
visit to Hyundai motorsport https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtcvtGg854s
"How science won the World Rally Championship"
https://sciencebusiness.net/how-scie...mDcN1N03PS8veo
Thank you bluuford!
Tomi Tuominen is an ex-co-driver who is now the main host of YLE's rallying television. He also now has a rally podcast and in the first episode he interviewed Marcus Grönholm. They talked about how rallying has evolved with technology, and one side comment came from Tuominen himself about driving Sardegna last year. He said that Tänak wants to have pictures in advance from the route as much as possible, to see what the conditions are, and this was only in a gravel rally, where they could spot possible bad stones or other hazards. Tuominen said he was included in a WhatsApp group where the pictures were sent.
EDIT: I listened to this bit again and it's actually Grönholm who says that "Tänak wants photos from the route all the time" and then Tuominnen tells about the WhatsApp group, not specifying it's Tänak who wants them.
Dirtfish made a short clip about Tänak’s lake incident. To this day, I get shivers when thinking back to it...
https://youtu.be/DcnglXDNO94
I still remember that incident clearly. Such a roller-coaster of emotions. Tänak was suddenly lost, no-one knew what was the situation. Next car came in, I think it was Paddon, Colin at the stage asked did you see Tänak? Answer is no. How one can just disappear?
For some reason this episode was not available later in wrc podcasts, but for me the hardest moment was when Colin reacted to someones message, "oh, boy...", it was clear message that something is really bad and this topic was stopped for some time. In this moment you start thinking... again? (for estonians - Märtin and Park 2005 GB).
Luckily soon some good news came in, but those minutes on that time were looooooooong to wait.
Later those "after stories" of course made things more spicy, like Raigo Mõlder was swimming legend in hand and later nursed it in Hotel. In some interview he said, he didn't take it on purpose with him to rescue it, he just "forgot it to hand" as automatic reaction.
Cherry on the cake was M-Sport car rebuild and recovery. All other teams were standing and checking the progress till late hours and M-Sport got round applause when car engine started. Even now, 5 years later, it's emotional to write about it....
It’s been one year since the premiere of Ott Tänak Movie!
Let’s celebrate the anniversary with exclusive extras on tanakmovie.com! You will find an exclusive short film "Becoming A World Champion in Rally Catalunya" and some untold stories that didn't make it to the film. Enjoy!
https://netikino.ee/tanakmovie?movie=178
DirtFish podcast with Ott https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/podca...and-the-heart/
And if it wasn't enough https://www.wrc.com/en/news/season-2...ast-ott-tanak/
and if that still wasnt enough then Q&A with him and Adamo https://www.instagram.com/p/CAATKduJmCD/
i like how Ott describes Rally Finland here, "like drawing an art"
Happy birthday to Ott!
Happy birthday champ!
https://youtu.be/P33K1N5qOvA
We have birthdays almost the same day. I had mine yesterday.
I already brought up this on twitter: During the last four years Tänak has been always celebrating a world title
2017 M-Sport
2018 Toyota
2019 personal title
2020 Hyundai
The manufacturer titles have all come from three different teams in four years. That must be a record...
this season reminded me 2018 in a way....
huge gap to the championship leaders already after 1st rally, then had a great come back like in 2018 with two second places and a win and was just 13 points down.
and then the car issues two rallies in a row which completely eliminated him from the championship again.
Next season drivers title will be very interesting, we have 4 drivers who could have won (or did) already this year and are really hungry to get it next year. Also we have the '17 car era ending with both Hyundai and Toyota pretty much in equal terms and I wouldn't count the 5th driver out this upcoming championship battle ;)
some statistics what Ott achieved with the Arctic win because you know why not, cause we have a huge gap to Croatia.
it was his 14th victory, got past Petter Solberg with that and is on par with Walter Röhrl. Next up is Mikko Hirvonen with 15 wins.
first time that he lead a rally from start to finish, last man to do it was Evans last year on Rally Sweden and before that Ogier in 2018 in Monte and Corsica. Total 27 drivers have achieved this.
and last but at not least, he has now won 11 different rallies. Latvala has 12, Grönholm 12, Sainz 13, Ogier 18 and of course the king Loeb has 23.
THE 2019 WORLD CHAMPION EXPLAINS HIS DECISION IN AN EXCLUSIVE COLUMN FOR DIRTFISH
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/tanak...his-own-words/
you guys can also now watch the left out material from the movie, which is called the series https://netikino.ee/otttanak_themovie_series?lang=en
i definitely recommend it, IMO its maybe even better than the movie material...theres more behind the scenes stuff, like how he goes to the president ball with his wife, what they do on recce and between the stages and etc, gravel crew stuff and Bluuford ;)
A bit pre-mature IMHO but still interesting none the less:
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/is-ta...-over-already/
If history can teach us anything, Tänak can take the fight back, but he'll have to pull something special with no DNF's until the rest of the season.
even me, as a diehard fan of his, im saying its over for this season
although he managed to reduce similar kind of points gap in 2018, i dont see it happening this year
Yeah it's almost done for Ott unfortunately. Ogier finishing on the podium in Portugal and winning Sardinia should send fear through the other challengers.
Ofcourse anything can happen in rallying, but this is Seb. And even if Seb falters, Tanak has to overhaul Thierry and Evans too. I think he has too much to do.