Silly Season 2019

[Andre Oliveira]

Loeb will announce 2019 program this wednesday.

Maybe some M-Sport news too.

[mknight]

Loeb will announce 2019 program this wednesday.

Maybe some M-Sport news too.

That's quite fast.

Anyway, while I heard about Msport rumors I just can't see why.
He is still PSA driver and Citroen have C3 seat free. If Al Quassimi money stays (which it sounded like when they talked to him in Spain) then surely Loeb is a worth the money.

[the sniper]

Literally the only reason I could see for Loeb going to M-Sport would be some kind of deal between Red Bull/WRC Promoter and M-Sport to get him there to help Malcolm out of a tough spot, but even that seems highly unlikely... Unlike Ogier, I've not seen anything to say that Loeb is particularly interested in working personally with Malcolm, and there seems to be no problem between Loeb and PSA/Budar, so why would he go?

[er88]

Loeb won't be going to Msport.

[er88]

bar germany, for which the car excels, he was even slower in the citroen

Yeah he said in an interview last season he could jump into the Hyundai and be fast right away as it reminded him of the Polo, whereas the C3 was totally different from a driving perspective (this was to explain his chronic lack of speed in Sardinia and his struggles to adjust to the car).

He couldn't drive the c3 at all on gravel, and his comments about being at home in the Hyundai right away seemed true, when he was on the pace instantly on the gravel in Spain and Australia (albeit with cleaning), and competitive in Wales.

This season however has been a nightmare considering he had aims to be world champion, and his arrival at Hyundai relegated Sordo and Paddon to half seasons. So you'd expect him to be a level above and at least 40/50pts closer to Thierry.

He has to start well next season and I hope he does, because I'd like to see Hyundai finally win a championship. They've been a great addition to the sport and are a proper, proper team.

[mknight]

Yeah he said in an interview last season he could jump into the Hyundai and be fast right away as it reminded him of the Polo, whereas the C3 was totally different from a driving perspective (this was to explain his chronic lack of speed in Sardinia and his struggles to adjust to the car).

He couldn't drive the c3 at all on gravel, and his comments about being at home in the Hyundai right away seemed true, when he was on the pace instantly on the gravel in Spain and Australia (albeit with cleaning), and competitive in Wales.

This season however has been a nightmare considering he had aims to be world champion, and his arrival at Hyundai relegated Sordo and Paddon to half seasons. So you'd expect him to be a level above and at least 40/50pts closer to Thierry.

He has to start well next season and I hope he does, because I'd like to see Hyundai finally win a championship. They've been a great addition to the sport and are a proper, proper team.

On Sardinia he drove the C3 basically without test (did a few kms in France only). In Poland he was faster than Breen, same speed as Lefevbre and did the first ever Power Stage points for C3 on gravel. Note that this was at the time where 1st (Meeke) and 3rd (Breen) from Finland 2016 ended 5th (Breen) and 8th (Meeke) on Finland 2018. Seemingly a lot has changed with C3 since then.

As for aiming to be world champion, well when drivers win a few rallies it's really the only possible next goal. Nobody will really aim to be a "good number 2" or something like that. That's why Paddon is saying the same as well, so did Meeke just recently.
So far he has not shown enough consistency over a whole season to do it, just like Latvala. In 2016 he was better at consistency+speed than Latvala, but still nowhere near the Ogier/Loeb-machine levels. Only Neuville is really approaching that and only this year, Tanak is not yet there either.

[Tarmop]

Loeb praised Ogier, that i is a miracle he is up there with the slowest machinery this season. Does that sound like something tempting for a 9x champion having fun?

Talking about consistency, then Ogier has done a lot of mistakes compared to his closest rivals.

[mknight]

Talking about consistency, then Ogier has done a lot of mistakes compared to his closest rivals.

Compared to Neuville this year yes. Last year he won the title basically only on consistency.

[Andre Oliveira]

Loeb won't be going to Msport.

Like Ogier before signed.

[EstWRC]

Greensmith just posted this pic on twitter, testing the Fiesta it seems...maybe having some rallies in 2019?





https://twitter.com/GreensmithGus/st...21736977043457