Pontus Tidemand [SWE]

[RS]

I am pleased to see Pontus back but I’m not sure I buy his reasoning about why he struggled. Wasn’t Lappi pretty quick straight away when he stepped up, even winning after a few events? Ok, I expect he had a lot more testing but the difference was night and day.

[AnttiL]

I am pleased to see Pontus back but I’m not sure I buy his reasoning about why he struggled. Wasn’t Lappi pretty quick straight away when he stepped up, even winning after a few events? Ok, I expect he had a lot more testing but the difference was night and day.

In theory Lappi could have tested a lot in Jyväskylä since Toyota had unlimited testing on a vast area of roads, but I've understood he didn't do that much of testing during the early season he was off the car.

And then we have Suninen who won his fifth stage in a WRC car, and was close to finishing the rally at 4th, and close to finishing the next rally at 2nd. Most likely he had only one limited day of testing for each event.

I expected Tidemand to do well since he was so equal with these guys in 2016.

As for Greensmith, he may have also done some extra testing in Greystoke, but other than that usually test days are pretty publicly covered. He had one test already in late 2018 or something, and posted a video of it.

[dupanton]

Imo, speed from the first meters with a new car, says a lot about the talent level of that driver...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I think some can drive an R5 too much, for too long, and it makes it harder to adapt to a current WRC. They are such a different beast needing a very different driving-style.

[AnttiL]

I think some can drive an R5 too much, for too long, and it makes it harder to adapt to a current WRC. They are such a different beast needing a very different driving-style.

Gus explained this in the Absolute Rally podcast last year, saying it's actually easier to drive WRC but you just need to have a lot of confidence to use the power and aero.

[Mirek]

I think that this is individual. Someone can adapt fast, someone needs more time, someone can't adapt ever. It's like that with everything not only with driving WRC.

[doubled1978]

Probably helps with a decent budget behind you as well if you are paying for the carbon fibre you knock off like Gus did quite a lot last year..

Exactly, Lappi didn’t have this problem but Sunninen did. I would say that Sunninen showed speed straight away, but he was a bit ragged in those couple of events, it paid off tho as he ended up with a drive.

[denkimi]

Probably helps with a decent budget behind you as well if you are paying for the carbon fibre you knock off like Gus did quite a lot last year..

This.
If you can't afford to bin it, you can't have the confidence to go fast.

[Rallyper]

This.
If you can't afford to bin it, you can't have the confidence to go fast.

Like I also tried to explain one year ago.

Btw. Suninen was instantly fast, yes, but has he progressed much after that?

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Pontus has spent the last 5 years in R5 cars. Dont most top driver's step-up to to WRC sooner if they have the chance/budget ?

Adapting must be easier if your driving-style hasnt become really ingrained in one kind of car.