[WRC] News & Rumours 2018

[AnttiL]

Time to kick off some rumors again (taken from autosport podcast)

Makkinen supposedly saying in Finland that his ideal lineup for next year would be Ogier, Neuville, Tanak.

Having heard the Finnish interview, I can assure you it was a dry joke. It was on topic of Latvala’s status in the team and he said the current lineup is so good it could be only made better by replacing the Finns with Ogier and Neuville.

[rallyace]

Hyundai not happy.

WTF Thierry.jpg

[spiderem]

fyi FX Demaison married Marie-Pierre Rossi (PR Citroen) this week end, with Peter Solberg and Marcus Gronholm as best men... Rallying is definitely a small world.

[Rally Hokkaido]

fyi FX Demaison married Marie-Pierre Rossi (PR Citroen) this week end, with Peter Solberg and Marcus Gronholm as best men... Rallying is definitely a small world.

When FX was still with Peugeot I asked him what they talked about at dinner time. He replied, "anything but WRC!" (They have been together for a long time)

[mknight]

fyi FX Demaison married Marie-Pierre Rossi (PR Citroen) this week end, with Peter Solberg and Marcus Gronholm as best men... Rallying is definitely a small world.

Pic:
https://twitter.com/Petter_Solberg/s...07366915342338


(note how small Petter is compared with Marcus)

[BigWorm]

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...undai-contract

Neuville sticking with Hyundai

[joannano]

Hello folks!

I don't want to spam you or anything like that! But I would like to know if you had the chance to see this new fan scheme announced by WRC:

Press release: https://www.wrc.com/en/wrc/news/augu...3--12-12-.html

I'm heading to Germany this weekend, and got very curious about it! Anyone else had a chance to see it?

[mknight]

It's not confirmed yet.

However I can see Hyundai preferring Neuville over Ogier at this point (he knows the car/team and can fight for title, Ogier would be an unknown and possibly costly as well). Only question is if Citroen might try to snatch Neuville. (Msport likely working hard to keep Ogier).

As to the other positions. I think Hyundai is actually quite satisfied with their lineup this year. Sure Mikkelsen is underperforming and so is Paddon (compared with 2016) but overall the results are decent enough. Question is if the drivers, or more specially Paddon is satisfied or whether he'd prefer to go to Citroen to do full season instead. (I can't see Hyundai letting Paddon drive full season instead of Mikkelsen due to his tarmac pace and Sordo said he doesn't want to do full season any more). One interesting option might be to try to get Lappi for a full season.

Overall if we count with 3 seats at Citroen there are 12 seats in WRC teams and 12 drivers (Paddon and Sordo sharing). While numerous drivers are underperforming (Latvala, Mikkelsen, Evans ++) they have all shown some good results/times as well. So there is no driver that clearly doesn't seem to deserve a seat (like Lefevbre looked last year).

At the same time how many drivers are there outside that you would instantly put into WRC manu car? I'd say 2: Meeke and Tidemand. Meeke is a lottery, possibly a costly one. So that leaves Tidemand which has no experience with WRC car yet. Sure some team might try to get some talent in early and see how it turns out, but it was usually Msport doing that and they already have kind of a low-cost "young" team with Evans and Suninen. Toyota has Lappi and Citroen Breen. Hyundai might let Huttunen in at some point but it's now too early.

[pantealex]

It's not confirmed yet.

However I can see Hyundai preferring Neuville over Ogier at this point (he knows the car/team and can fight for title, Ogier would be an unknown and possibly costly as well). Only question is if Citroen might try to snatch Neuville. (Msport likely working hard to keep Ogier).

As to the other positions. I think Hyundai is actually quite satisfied with their lineup this year. Sure Mikkelsen is underperforming and so is Paddon (compared with 2016) but overall the results are decent enough. Question is if the drivers, or more specially Paddon is satisfied or whether he'd prefer to go to Citroen to do full season instead. (I can't see Hyundai letting Paddon drive full season instead of Mikkelsen due to his tarmac pace and Sordo said he doesn't want to do full season any more). One interesting option might be to try to get Lappi for a full season.

Overall if we count with 3 seats at Citroen there are 12 seats in WRC teams and 12 drivers (Paddon and Sordo sharing). While numerous drivers are underperforming (Latvala, Mikkelsen, Evans ++) they have all shown some good results/times as well. So there is no driver that clearly doesn't seem to deserve a seat (like Lefevbre looked last year).

At the same time how many drivers are there outside that you would instantly put into WRC manu car? I'd say 2: Meeke and Tidemand. Meeke is a lottery, possibly a costly one. So that leaves Tidemand which has no experience with WRC car yet. Sure some team might try to get some talent in early and see how it turns out, but it was usually Msport doing that and they already have kind of a low-cost "young" team with Evans and Suninen. Toyota has Lappi and Citroen Breen. Hyundai might let Huttunen in at some point but it's now too early.

If both Ogier and Neuville stays, which is probably happening.
And citroen keeps Breen and Østberg who will be 3rd and likely leading Citroen driver ?

I believe we have 1 open factory seat if Paddon/Sordo keep sharing or if Paddon goes somewhere and Sordo doesn´t want full season Hyundai needs 0,5 driver.

[mknight]

If both Ogier and Neuville stays, which is probably happening.
And citroen keeps Breen and Østberg who will be 3rd and likely leading Citroen driver ?

That's the big question. Off course they will try to get Ogier, but also need plan B ( ulike last year). They could try to get Lappi, Paddon, Latvala or possibly Tidemand (not as lead driver though).