Citroen retain Loeb and Ogier

[FAlonso]

I think, at this point, that Meeke should be the obvious choice. A talented driver, a great all-rounder with previous WRC experience, Citroen tester and someone who has been fighting, for the past 2 years, at the top in a very competitive series like the IRC.

If P-G could also be in the mix then all the better. And lets see what Duval will be able to do on tarmac. Could still be a bet for the asphalt rounds in 2011.

Ford can´t afford to keep on battling a combination of Loeb-Ogier-Sordo-Petter-Raikkonen with Mikko-JM-Wilson-Henning.

Mikko-JM-Meeke-PG-Duval would be way stronger (if feasible).

[janvanvurpa]

I wonder about Malcolm's strategy... I doubt that he'll persist on Hirvonen and especially Latvala for the next season...

maybe you didn't hear...
There's a 5 year Plan for Wilson's son Wilsson. Or Viilsomäki...

[Rallyper]

maybe you didn't hear...
There's a 5 year Plan for Wilson's son Wilsson. Or Viilsomäki...

It would be very, very surprising if MW will continue support his son in the WRC. I guess Mathew have had his days and will be testdriver in the future. At most driving in the IRC and maybe some WRC events when they have enough cars.

He has to overhand his seat to PG or Meeke.

Everything else would be stupid and wreckless done by Malcolm.

[Red bull]

It would be very, very surprising if MW will continue support his son in the WRC. I guess Mathew have had his days and will be testdriver in the future. At most driving in the IRC and maybe some WRC events when they have enough cars.

He has to overhand his seat to PG or Meeke.

Everything else would be stupid and wreckless done by Malcolm.

mathew wilson has never been fords no1/no2 driver,problem is the two current lead drivers who are not perfoming according to expectations,also meek driving a storbart car wont change anything on the leader board as at the moment hes also struggling in the irc.if both hirvonen and latvala are not competitive at least one of them should be moved to stobart and make way for another tested wrc driver as citroen has done to sordo. mokin:

[I am evil Homer]

Meeke should be in WRC next year with his IRC experience and success. Shame he keeps chucking it off the road this year but speed wise on every surface he is as good as what Ford has now.

[JAM]

Matthew Wilson wil continue rallying and burning the money that could be spent in any other driver with skills. His dad is the boss and (not directly) is Ford who pays the bill.

The most surprising is Malcolm try to steal Ogier to Citroen, after the french people invest a lot of money on Ogier's development.

But ok, this is the WRC of the 21st century

Now with Loeb / Ogier, the things could be even worst.

[ShiftingGears]

Ford could try getting Sordo for tarmac events.

[RS]

Meeke should be in WRC next year with his IRC experience and success. Shame he keeps chucking it off the road this year but speed wise on every surface he is as good as what Ford has now.

Meeke would be much better than Wilson no doubt but I don't get the significance of people discussing Stobart/Citroen Juniors like they actually matter. I guess Stobart is just a money making thing for Wilson, having PG or Meeke or whoever in a Stobart won't make much of a difference to Ford as a manufacturer unless the manufacturer points scoring rules are changed to something similar to what they have in IRC.

Is something like that on the horizon, or at least a return to 3 car teams with top 2 scoring?

[Doon]

I can't see why everyone persists in blaming the Ford drivers, Mikko and JML can be really quick on thier day even in a car that is far from the pace of the Citroens. Gronholm said in Sweden that the 2009 car had developed very little from his 2007 car, Petter also said the Ford was slow when choosing his C4, and Aava said the C4 was much quicker. On VS from the Bulgaria coverage, it showed a Ford and Citroen coming out of a series of corner at the same speed and the Citroen was going 9km/h faster within 300m....says it all.

Having considered that Ford have a smaller budget than Citroen, why would they continue to throw money at a car that is soon to be out of use when as far back as 2008 they knew a new format and car was going to be required by 2011. We just have to hope that the time Ford have spent developing the Fiesta has been worth it. I believe they are going the right way about it, by running the equivalent S2000 car for a whole year, with the free feedback from the drivers. Fingers crossed!

[mdesign]

Matthew Wilson wil continue rallying and burning the money that could be spent in any other driver with skills. His dad is the boss and (not directly) is Ford who pays the bill.

The most surprising is Malcolm try to steal Ogier to Citroen, after the french people invest a lot of money on Ogier's development.

But ok, this is the WRC of the 21st century

Now with Loeb / Ogier, the things could be even worst.

That's not Malcom's problem if the french invested on Ogier. Ford invested on drivers like Markko, Petter, Duval and others that end up on other teams after growing on ford.
Ogier did the best choice for him, but sadly not the bet for the championship (not his fault that ford is not good enough for citroen)