Atkos Best Drive?

[grugsticles]

You know its funny, there seemed to be a period about 12 months ago where Chris was labeled by the public as a crasher and possibly not deserving of a WRC drive. I too thought that perhaps I was biased towards him (being Australian and all). But I'm glad that he has managed to turn it around.

Given his current form and a competitive car I'm sure he would be able to mix it with the likes of the Group A and early WRCar stars in their hay day (Makinen, McRae, Burns, Gronholm, Kaukkanen etc.). Perhaps he wouldnt have been a stand out, but hed definatly be a chance for victory.

I also agree with Pino's comment on Chris being a better driver than Petter atm. Overall, I'd say Petter is faster on his day but I think the ruomurs of the Petter/SWRT unrest has to have some truth to it and that is adversly affecting his speed. Chris seems to be able to ignore it and concentrate on his driving giving him results.

In any case, GO ATKO!!!

[jonkka]

In my view Atkinson could challenge almost anyone nowadays. Subaru just is not easy place to any demonstration.

Given Chris' stage times towards the end of the rally, I'd be cautiously optimistic about Subaru getting better. It'll be interesting to see in Deutschland if their claims about tarmac performance are correct...

[tmx]

nah i dont think chris can simply replace latvala, latvala speed is something else, even loeb said so. chris has been more consistent lately is why he gets podium, even though yes he is quick sometimes. must be atleast something about stephen prevot influences on him too. i remembered someone here said stephen prevot is the patron saint of bad luck. (will you people stop calling him dudu, gezz.) this is why i don't want to make any conclusion about any driver too early, dani sordo speed blew me away in jordan.

[Anderton]

Given Chris' stage times towards the end of the rally, I'd be cautiously optimistic about Subaru getting better. It'll be interesting to see in Deutschland if their claims about tarmac performance are correct...

I've actually got my money on Atkinson getting another 3rd place finish in Germany. He is literally leading the way for Subaru at the moment.

[Finni]

Chris Biewer's comment on the same issue:

"Only a couple of years ago I defended Petter tooth and nail as being the best driver there is alongside Loeb. I seriously rated him higher than Grönholm. Petter's performances went down as the Subaru increasingly lost competitiveness agains Citroen and Ford. At the same time Chris is getting better and better. I find it hard to believe Petter lost his talent. Leaves the question: How bad is that Subaru really and how good is Chris really?"

[Daniel]

nah i dont think chris can simply replace latvala, latvala speed is something else, even loeb said so. chris has been more consistent lately is why he gets podium, even though yes he is quick sometimes. must be atleast something about stephen prevot influences on him too. i remembered someone here said stephen prevot is the patron saint of bad luck. (will you people stop calling him dudu, gezz.) this is why i don't want to make any conclusion about any driver too early, dani sordo speed blew me away in jordan.

Duval make his own bad luck. Since MacNeal is gone Chris is clearly doing better. Chris is driving the same way he used to drive back in Australia. Fast and consistent. He's kind of a slightly slower Loeb rather than someone like Latvala who has tonnes of speed but lacks consistency. Put him in a Focus or C4 and the guy will win rallies or at the very least be fighting for victories.

[Viking]

I think Petter needs some defending here

After New car arrival Impreza wrc 2008

Teammates Petter-Atko 2-1

Driver points taken: Petter 14, Atko 6 , same for manu points.

Chris has upper hand in Germany, Petter has never done well there.

[Tomi]

Chris Biewer's comment on the same issue:

"Only a couple of years ago I defended Petter tooth and nail as being the best driver there is alongside Loeb. I seriously rated him higher than Grönholm. Petter's performances went down as the Subaru increasingly lost competitiveness agains Citroen and Ford. At the same time Chris is getting better and better. I find it hard to believe Petter lost his talent. Leaves the question: How bad is that Subaru really and how good is Chris really?"

It's difficult to say who is the best driver unless they drives the same car, if i remember correct so did Chris rank Burns above Grönholm too, until he joined Peugeot. But now it sure looks that Atkinson is ahead of Petter and has been for a while already.

[cali]

It's difficult to say who is the best driver unless they drives the same car, if i remember correct so did Chris rank Burns above Grönholm too, until he joined Peugeot. But now it sure looks that Atkinson is ahead of Petter and has been for a while already.

And even then you get unprecise answer because it comes down to how some car feels to certain driver, setups etc. It is just more than that we put all the drivers into same cars. Even Loeb can be crap when he does not feel comfortable with driving Focus. Theoretically speaking. Märtin was fantastic with 2003 Focus, while horrible in a whale, Mcrae was fantastic driving Subie and Focus, while not doing so good in a Citroen, Makinen was great driving Lancer, while being really outperformed by Petter in a Subie. This list can go on and on. You have to understand that those drivers mentioned earlier had been successful when those cars were built according to their wishes and driving style.

So i cannot fully agree with you!

But Chris is doing really fine and i'm hoping to see even better performance from him as the season goes on.

[Brother John]

I think Petter needs some defending here
After New car arrival Impreza wrc 2008
Teammates Petter-Atko 2-1
Driver points taken: Petter 14, Atko 6 , same for manu points.
Chris has upper hand in Germany, Petter has never done well there.

It seems his problem is to be fast for a complete rally.
Fast and consistently that is what he need instead of pretending and show the people that he still is the super star from WRC, and this after a fast time on the super Special stage on Friday, still before the rally really must start.

Back to Chris, he improved a lot and must replace nobody in a another team such as you can read here on the forum.
We will see, however, to what the future brings for him.