Ott Tänak - Future champion?

[Crazy J]

Where ever Ott will drive on next couple of years, probably money will play some role as well. Loeb and Ogier have collected their pension savings, but Ott most likely has to (but probably is also happy to) share his salary with Malcolm, Georg, Markko and some for his current and former co-drivers, gravel crews, etc supporting specialist. Besides that he is likely to share some to his family, relatives and yellow golf Saaremaa supporters. Media says that he has barely got decent salary so far, so it will surely take still some years that he has proper amount of money left actually for himself.

[cali]

The only thing different in Estonian media is a claim from long term Ott supporter Georg Gross that he knows where Ott will drive. This means as minimum that Ott has made up his mind and made decision if not contract already but Gross doesn’t say anything about contract.

Everybody knows it already whats the fuss? Read between the lines - Hfrigginyundai

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[TypeR]

Get the facts straight.. It's OLEG Gross, who has been supporting Ott the whole time, not Georg(his son).
Potato-potaato.. just sayin'.

[Eraisik]

Indeed! I managed to get name wrong despite I know both. I thought Oleg but fingers typed Georg. My bad.

[Gregor-y]

Starting as a WRC regular in 2012 that's seven years to his first title. Has any other champion had to work that long and that hard (not to mention with so many different teams if you count Dmack) to win?

[deephouse]

If Ogier wouldn't be in wrc in those years he would be probably sooner. Or not. For me he was just some unreliable, sometimes fast like a lot of other guys. Then he almost win on DMACK's and next year he did it twio times. Then I realize that this dude could actually be in the mix for the title. Shame that Latvala, Meeke and Mikkelsen can't challenge those three kings anymore. That would be pretty awesome. Maybe some new manufacturer would pay interest because there would be more title contenders.

[Legendaarne]

It took Mäkinen 10years
Grönholm 12years

[AnttiL]

It took Mäkinen 10years
Grönholm 12years

Depends on where you put the zero. I would say Grönholm won the title on his first full season and Tommi on his third.

EDIT: Third season for Tommi. 1992 Nissan, 1995-1996 Mitsu

[Legendaarne]

Depends on where you put the zero. I would say Grönholm won the title on his first full season and Tommi on his fourth.

Yes, that's how it is

But Gregor-y's question was since Tänak was a regular (he said since 2012. Tänak hasn't had full seasons all these years)

I just took these numbers from a finnish article in yle.fi (Mestariksi mestareiden iässä)

The guy who wrote it, said they had been around in wrc for that amount of time.

In my opinion in the last 25 years, only Sebastiens have risen to rally prominence in their early or first years

My goal was to show that it takes time for everyone

Very few are those who can win straight out of the box

Tänak was crash prone, but so was Mcrae

Both world champions

[Gregor-y]

But Gregor-y's question was since Tänak was a regular (he said since 2012. Tänak hasn't had full seasons all these years)

He missed 2013 and drove all but three events in 14 (though since many were with Dmack do they count?). Even assuming 2015 as his first full year that's four years to the championship.

That does not detract from his accomplishment at all. If anything it shows how persistence at the WRC level can pay off. Particularly these days where most champions have been good right out of the box. Richard Burns is probably the last campaigner before Tanak to get a title.

Compared to other champions:
Ogier 2009 start 2013 championship (four years, including s2000 in 2012 which can't be better than running with Dmack)
Loeb 2003 start, 2004 championship (one year)
Solberg 2000 start (though he missed four events that year) 2003 championship (three years)
Burns 1997 start (missing five events that year), 2001 championship (four years if you count 97 as a full season)
Gronholm 2000 start, championship 2000
Makinen 1995 start, 1996 championship (one year)
McRae 1992 start, 1995 championship (three years and that's missing some events in 92)
Auriol 1990 start, 1994 championship (four years; from 90-93 he missed at least three events each year)
Sainz 1989 start , 1990 championship (one year)
Biasaion 1986 start, 1988 championship (two years. Even when champion he was missing as many as four events per year)
Kankkunen 1986 start, 1986 championship

It starts to get muddier farther back as drivers like Salonen had been doing some events regularly but not full seasons. Likewise Blomqvist had been doing Sweden/Finland/RAC since the early 70s but didn't run anything resembling a WRC season until 83 and he won the next year.