[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[denkimi]

To VW's credit, they did a hard job very, very well and made it look easy.
Their planning and execution were near perfect.
They had good facilities and background knowledge of motorsport from years of Dakar.
They ran the team (people & equipment) for one year as an S2000 team before they started with the WRC car.
They tested the car for a long time, all over the world, and arrived with a car that was ready and very, very capable. (They bypassed cooling issues in Mexico because they went there and tested, tested, tested BEFORE they entered the championship)
Anyone else could have also entered the sport in the same way, but no one in recent history has. VW achieved what they did through a lot of hard work and a clever strategy that gave them a maximum head start. They then capitalized on that with good organisation, clever engineering and a good budget.

Most importantly they hired ogier and loeb retired.

Without ogier they would have won 2 drivers titles with latvala, but hyundai also would have won 2 with neuville.

[OHL]

They seem to have bounced from losing faith in one department to another in looking for the failings of the car & team.
They lost trust in Meeke, then the engineers/designers and followed that up with the management. Only now do they have a recognised championship contender driving the car to eliminate at least that doubt, Meeke was fast but erratic, so for engineers it was easy to point the finger. In honesty they probably lost most of 2017 blaming him when the car wasn’t working.
It does look like they are now pulling the right way, but I have to say it looks like progress is slow from the outside...

And all of this coupled with Mads statements about the R5 car and its shortcomings for Finland have Citroen with a pretty full plate. Especially concerning aero. They have been one of the most conservative in this area and it's not clear why. We know from statements by VW that they also did not think aero would be as important as it has proven to be. It's possible Citroen have their hands so full with just getting the car up to par that they have no time / Jokers left to fundamentally develop it.

[OHL]

Most importantly they hired ogier and loeb retired.

Without ogier they would have won 2 drivers titles with latvala, but hyundai also would have won 2 with neuville.

Maybe, we'll never know.
Ogier was an unproven nobody at that time. A brave choice that payed off but it's not WHY they won 4 in a row.

[mknight]

Most importantly they hired ogier and loeb retired.

Without ogier they would have won 2 drivers titles with latvala, but hyundai also would have won 2 with neuville.

Nitpick:
In 2013 Neuville was 2nd in a Fiesta.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

On this weeks AR podcast Latvala confirmed the Polo was built around Ogier and it took him a long time to adapt to driving it.

He also said he has big respect for Ogier who was always very fair.

I think if Ogier cant get the C3 right, no-one can. If Citroen dont/cant then they've wasted their money employing him.

[mknight]

I think if Ogier cant get the C3 right, no-one can. If Citroen dont/cant then they've wasted their money employing him.

With regards to Ogier "getting C3 right".. he was leading the championship going to Sardinia and now is just a bit behind. Doesn't look like a waste of money to me. Anyway we should all be happy he isn't 40 points ahead

Also related saga is the i20 on tarmac, now Loeb has two extra rallies (2nd this weekend) to try to make it work, we'll see how that goes.

[EstWRC]

Since there’s no news a little something https://t.co/g7FdBu2Ds5

[mknight]

I don't get why he puts Tanak at Hyundai over MSport.

Sure Msport probably doesn't offer much money, but he knows the car, the car has proved that it's fast (Sardinia, Corsica, Sweden, especially Corsica was pretty impressive, might have been even faster than Yaris).

On the other had Hyundai does struggle on a few rallies still (Finland we'll see in two weeks though, tarmac in mid-august) and there now is quite a history of drivers coming in and struggling with the car at times. While he might not make much of Mikkelsen struggling he surely noticed Loeb compared to his C3 time. Last but not least I don't think he would want to be in the same team with Neuville, especially since Adamo might start prioritizing one of them for drivers title very early.... and in the early part of a season Neuville will likely do better since he knows the car much more.

[denkimi]

Maybe, we'll never know.
Ogier was an unproven nobody at that time. A brave choice that payed off but it's not WHY they won 4 in a row.

I assume you were not yet following rally in those years?

Ogier was back then already the man who was able to challenge loeb in the same car. He won 5 wrc rallies in 2011 alone, the same as maestro loeb that year. The same amount as latvala in his whole career up to that point.

On this weeks AR podcast Latvala confirmed the Polo was built around Ogier and it took him a long time to adapt to driving it.

He also said he has big respect for Ogier who was always very fair.

Latvala always has the same stupid excuses. After 15 years in the wrc he still claims he has to learn how to drive or he has to find the right settings.

[doubled1978]

G

And all of this coupled with Mads statements about the R5 car and its shortcomings for Finland have Citroen with a pretty full plate. Especially concerning aero. They have been one of the most conservative in this area and it's not clear why. We know from statements by VW that they also did not think aero would be as important as it has proven to be. It's possible Citroen have their hands so full with just getting the car up to par that they have no time / Jokers left to fundamentally develop it.

Yes true, that was a slightly odd statement from Ostberg, they could have just not entered and said it wasn’t in the plan to go...