2014 Silly Season

[Brother John]

why swap solberg

solberg was performing far better in privately entered citoren so give him a chance

What is a citoren??? Or you have to learn to write???

[mohit]

oh my bad

citroen is good for you now cheers

[Duvel]

My guess:

Vw: Same as 2013 Ogier, Latvalla and Mikkelsen
Hyundai: Hirvonen, Hanninen, and selected events whit 3th car for Paddon
M-sport: Ostberg, Novikov, Evans, Nasser.
Citroen: Neuville, Khalid, Meeke for gravel events, and Dani on tarmac.

Don't forget Matton is a belgian, could wel be a factor for Neuville.

For me this would be great line-up for the factory teams, and a hope that Peugeot will replace Citroen after the 2014 season. Thatway Neuville maybe can get full factory support by 2015, when nobody is talking about a crisis anymore!

Also hoping for a return of mister hollywood! second half of the season junior wrc team from Hyundai whit Paddon and Solberg?

Just guessing ofcorse!

[Rallyper]

VW: Ogier, Latvala, Tidemand
Hyundai: Mikko, Mikkelsen, Hanninen
Citroen: Neuville, Ostberg, Meeke/Sordo
Ford: Solberg, Novikov, Evans

[sollitt]

Unsurprisingly many of you continue to wear the blinkers when it comes to whose deserving of a factory drive.
The view that any contender must already be in a WRC car is nonsense and frankly, if Citroen had always adopted that policy we would never have seen Loeb or Ogier as we have.
Many of you lauded Meeke as Citroen's saviour before Rally Australia and, despite his spectacular failings, continue to talk of him as "having shown the speed to be competitive" and deserving of another go. What utter nonsense.
At the time of his first accident he was just 4th having set a couple of 2nd's and 3rd's and a string of 5th's, 6th's & 7th's and already over a minute behind Ogier.
The only drivers he was competitive with were the under performers who have indelibly marked the WRC for the past 10 or so years.

If we are to avoid a repeat of the last decade, decision makers are going to have to think outside the box. And they're going to have to do some legwork to find real contenders. At all levels of this sport, including WRC, the most talented are often lacking in resource and therefore not immediately apparent.

If there was a revelation at all in Australia it was Paddon. Forget about who his WRC2 competition was and compare his performance to the WRC cars. In a car that ought to have been over 2 seconds a kilometre slower than a WRC car he averaged just one second per kilometre slower than Meeke, over the stages they both contested, and a little over one and a half seconds slower than Ogier.
He placed 6th in the power stage and, with the removal of his penalties and time losses from Day 2, would have completed the event about equal with Novikov (7th).
This in an outdated normally aspirated car reputedly held together with string which had no business travelling anything like the speed it did.
Paddon's commitment was obvious, his car placement inch perfect and his speed spectacular. But there's nothing new about that. He alone, along with perhaps Neuville, has the ability to take the fight to Ogier and would be immediately competitive.

If any one of Matton, Wilson or Nandan do not, at the very least, invite Paddon to test their car before the season's out, with the prospect of a 2014 seat , they are simply not doing their job.
They're not doing their job for their teams, they're not doing their job for their sponsors, and they're not doing their job for the championship.

[skarderud]

Maybe its time to take a look in the lower classes, lots of fast youngguns around in different 2wd machinery. Maybe give them a learningyear in an R5 or as a juniorteam, but i doubt future wrcchampions is people with lots of wrc-experience

[tiger36]

If there was a revelation at all in Australia it was Paddon. Forget about who his WRC2 competition was and compare his performance to the WRC cars. In a car that ought to have been over 2 seconds a kilometre slower than a WRC car he averaged just one second per kilometre slower than Meeke, over the stages they both contested, and a little over one and a half seconds slower than Ogier.
He placed 6th in the power stage and, with the removal of his penalties and time losses from Day 2, would have completed the event about equal with Novikov (7th).

S2000 'over' 2s/km slower than wrc?
Padding 'little' over 1.5s/km slower than Ogier?

So that put Paddon 'easy' 0.5s/km ahead of Ogier?


If I where you I take a bank loan and invest in Paddon.
Bank man would love your theory.

Ever heard of road cleaning.
Paddon is good.
But less dreaming and more educational calculation please.

[Mirek]

To be precise, Ogier in S2000 was 0,9 s/km slower (RMC), 1,3 s/km (Sweden), 2,3 s/km (Mexico for obvious reason), 1,1 s/km (Portugal), 1,5 s/km (Argentina), 1,9 s/km (Acropolis), 1,7 s/km (Finland), 1,6 s/km (Germany), 1,8 s/km (Wales), 1,3 s/km (Alsace), 0,8 s/km (Sardegna), in Catalunya he did too few stages. That's average 1,5 s/km but the differences between events were too big to say that Paddon was on Ogier's pace.

[sollitt]

Mirek, you're absolutely right. The differences between the cars will vary depending on events.
The point though is that Paddon is driving the car both on the limit and accurately everywhere. And that is all that is possible.
The other 'candidates' for WRC drives being spoken about here do not have a history of doing so and consequently are destined to remain in the lottery for the lower placings without ever realistically challenging the leaders.
In contrast Paddon has won, or been dominant, in every category of car he's ever sat his arse in. The next level is really another step well within his capability.

[NxOxT]

there is a difference between driving a WRC car competitively and driving a lesser car competitively... it is not the same thing... last year Ogier was struggling to beat Mikkelsen in an s2000... Kopecky is another example and also Hanninen, Henning and many many others...

I am not rulling out that paddon could be a challenger but as Neuville showed you need a lot of time in a WRC seat to do that... and you do not always succeed.