[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[Fredouye]

Did not know Citroen had used all their jokers for new parts this year already? To wait until next year for new aero and other improvements is a huge blow for Lappi and Ogier (in his title fight).

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Ogier told in this week's Auto-Hebdo that the engine will have upgraded parts in Germany.

[AnttiL]

Question: Have you found any solutions?

- In Portugal we went ahead. Maybe we had new parts then, but I wasn't told.

In the Neste Rally podcast he says the same like ”I wanted certain parts (diffs) and found out in Portugal we had them homologated all along, nobody just told me”

[mknight]

Ogier told in this week's Auto-Hebdo that the engine will have upgraded parts in Germany.

And he told D. Evans on Sardinia that they have upgrades for gravel coming.

But now Lappi says they have no more jokers...

The only way that makes sense is that they have no jokers for aero since they already planned what they want to use them on.

[AnttiL]

Lappi also says in the podcast that they’re already thinking for next year. Both because the year has gone so bad for him but also that the required parts cannot be homologated before that.

[mknight]

If current plans stay the same Mikkelsen won't be doing Spain (Neuville, Sordo, Loeb)...

Presume Mikkelsen will be in Germany unless Adamo doesn't want him anywhere near the i20 on tarmac, and chucks Breen into the deep end (surely unlikely?)

Yes Mikkelsen will likely do Germany and not Spain. Which is actually weird in its own way since Loeb is now doing 2 tarmac rallies.

Funny how Adamo just now said it's strange Loeb struggles with i20 on tarmac... after Mikkelsen went from 2nd place on tarmac to last WRC speed the year before.

Loeb went from winning a rally to 2nd last WRC (only Lappi was slower) and basically his worst tarmac rally in terms of pace since he started driving in WRC.

Surely Breen who afaik doesn't have a single tarmac podium can't be expected to shine in I20 when he was 5-7th in C3 on same surface and the other two have 1st and 2nd. But hey Adamo can make some weird decisions (latest being Breen instead of Paddon in Finland).

[T16]

They are not saying who will drive the i20....right before Australia.

Probably depends what championships are decided, but there is surely some deadline for entries.

Either case Neuville is unlikely. They'd probably want Loeb, but since he is so negative about traveling and time I doubt he wants to fly 20 hours to Japan. Sordo is imo most likely, also since he probably isn't doing Australia. For Mikkelsen there are way too many unknowns (will he drive tarmac in Germany or Spain (and will he do well?), is he going to stay with the team?).

Am I missing something / misreading what you have posted?

Why is it unlikely that Neville drives in Aus?

Cheers.

[mknight]

Am I missing something / misreading what you have posted?

Why is it unlikely that Neville drives in Aus?

Cheers.

Rally Japan candidate WRC event announced there will be 2 manu cars, a Yaris (driven by Katsuta) and an i20 without naming the driver.

The event is the weekend before Australia, which is why I think it's unlikely that Neuville drives cause he will be important in Australia no matter what title they are fighting for.

Sorry if that point wasn't clear.

[Fredouye]

Monte 2020 route

[Portimao]

305 kilometers only

[AnttiL]

Last year’s new SS1 and SS2 thrown into Saturday and Friday. SS1 new(?), SS2 wasn’t used last year. Curbans stage lenghtened/modified from last year.