Who to replace Latvala in Argentina?

[Nornbugger]

Yes, like Germany 2011. The second driver beats the num 1 that is fighting for the championship.

The diference? A french one was authorized to challenge Loeb, four years later a Spanish one was not athorized.

Is interesting as you try to use the interest of the team as argument to explain the obvious. Ogier had the oportunities that Sordo never had.

But Sordo will prove the he is much better driver than what Citroen let him to be.

It is interesting to me that in the 58 events that sordo was number 2 to Loeb, Loeb won 33 events, Dani won none, he is an excellent tar driver, but he had chances to win on gravel with Citroen and never delivered.

[jcatanho]

Yes, like Germany 2011. The second driver beats the num 1 that is fighting for the championship.

The diference? A french one was authorized to challenge Loeb, four years later a Spanish one was not athorized.

Is interesting as you try to use the interest of the team as argument to explain the obvious. Ogier had the oportunities that Sordo never had.

But Sordo will prove the he is much better driver than what Citroen let him to be.

During the four years in which Sordo was Citroen's Pilot (2007-2010) there was 41 non tarmac rallyes. Only in 6 of those rallyes Sordo was able to finish right after Loeb. If the difference in results between Loeb and Sordo were mainly due to team's orders I would expect that Sordo would finish a lot of rallyes right after Loeb. Not 2 or more positions down!
In tarmac he is very fast. If it was'nt for Loeb he could have done in the last years the same thing Panizzi did between 2000 and 2003, ie, beeing the fastest tarmac rally driver on earth!

Currently Sordo is one of the best drivers. In Portugal he was amazingly fast in gravel. Perhaps he improved, perhaps Mini 01b is much better, perhaps it was due to road position. Probably a combination of those 3 factors.

I am hoping to see Sordo winning a rally very soon but he was never as fast as Loeb in non tramac rallyes. And in tarmac he was closer to Loeb than any other driver but only sometimes he was on pace with Loeb.

[grugsticles]

Latvala gave an interview for Finnish broadcasting company YLE yesterday:

Nordic skiing is part of his normal practise. At the end of 18 km route there was a sudden full-stop.

"I was at the last downhill coming to the cabin when something hit the ski. There was something I didn't notice, because it had been snowing", Latvala says.

"You could compare the stop to running your bike into pavement and flying over the steering. I flew straight ahead and everything landed on the shoulder."

Latvala says that the severity of the damage came clear soon.

"At the moment I tried to get up, I realised it was not good. The pain was immense. I've never felt such pain before", Latvala describes.

"The collar bone shattered into two pieces, and it was pressing the nerve at the neck. I almost lost consciousness while trying to get up."
Latvala hiihto-onnettomuudestaan: "Meinasi taju lähteä" | Ralli | Moottoriurheilu | YLE Urheilu | yle.fi

Im not sure how JML is feeling right now, but if her was up to it surly he could drive one handed?
Im sure M-Sport could rig up some form of push button contraption for shifting gears and handbrake. They did a similar thing when McRae broke his finger, although this is obviously more severe.

[rallyfiend]

The problem would not be the skill of driving - it would be the very direct pressure on that area by the mandatory harness and HANS device. there's no way around that no matter how good an engineer you are.

[JAM]

Perhaps he improved,

IMO is a bit strange that a driver can't improve during 5 years doing WRC gravel rallyes and testing with the best WRC team, and in only one year is able to improve dramaticaly his gravel skills.

[JAM]

Im not sure how JML is feeling right now, but if her was up to it surly he could drive one handed?

With the seat belt and Hans pressing the shoulder, is impossible to drive a rallycar on that situation.

[dimviii]

IMO is a bit strange that a driver can't improve during 5 years doing WRC gravel rallyes and testing with the best WRC team, and in only one year is able to improve dramaticaly his gravel skills.

where did you see the improved gravel skills? When Loeb is out,Mikko cruising with 5th stage times,Latvala f@cked at all,and Ogier with s2000?
Get real guys,Argentina is close....

[dimviii]

Yes, like Germany 2011. The second driver beats the num 1 that is fighting for the championship.

The diference? A french one was authorized to challenge Loeb, four years later a Spanish one was not athorized.

Is interesting as you try to use the interest of the team as argument to explain the obvious. Ogier had the oportunities that Sordo never had.

But Sordo will prove the he is much better driver than what Citroen let him to be.

So Sordo with Ogier equal in terms of speed,just citroen didn t allowed him to win cause his nationality........

[Barreis]

Ogier is much quicker but also crash prone.

[JAM]

where did you see the improved gravel skills? When Loeb is out,Mikko cruising with 5th stage times,Latvala f@cked at all,and Ogier with s2000?
Get real guys,Argentina is close....

Loeb was out in Sweden? Miko 5th?

Get real dimviii! On the first 97km of the swedish rally, Sordo was losing 25s to Hirvonen and Latvala, and 20s to Loeb. With a car that is as good as a average Fiesta WRC (as someone said) it was really good.

But if you remember the 2010 swedish rally, Sordo was in charge beating Loeb in somes stages on the first day. Sudenly on the 2nd day Sordo said that has no confidence on the car... strange. The low temps during the night must have changed the set-up of the C4 n. 2...