Silly Season 2019

[wia5958]

Speaking of which how will ogier fair as a development driver to develop the c3? Has he done any before. I know with the polo but was that not largely carried out by sainz? Just could be interesting

[mknight]

Well C3 is getting podiums this year with Østberg and Breen and fighting in top 3 with Loeb, in GB it was fighting for 3rd all the way to sunday, can't exactly be rubbish.

Might have as much to do with Ogier being perfectionist.

[doubled1978]

Thats actually a point, the C3 was so inconsistent on WRGB. Friday it was Ok, Saturday it was good, and Sunday it was awful. I'm sure road position had an influence on it, but not to the extent we saw in the times. They both looked positively dreadful on Sunday where I was (Gwydir) yet the previous day they looked good (Myherin), and for Ostberg to set fastest time through Sweet Lamb/Hafren it must have been working well, road position advantage or not.

[mknight]

I20 was similarly inconsistent. (or actually even more)

Anyway Breen was on almost exacly same time as Ogier (who was fighting for win) first stage on Sunday.. on second he got in the ditch and damaged front. Hard to measure times after that.

[RS]

BTW, a friend of mine has suggested M-Sport may withdraw from the Manu's WRC so they dont have to do the long-haul events. They could then just run cars for 'their' driver's on European rounds...

Can new parts be homologated if a team is not registered for the manufacturers championships?

[wrc2017]

Meeke to Toyota... if true...it's even a win for him before he starts a single rally, and a big 2 fingers to Citroen management. Makinen obviously sees something in him. Look at all the options Tommi had, and Meeke came out on top... thats an endorsement and a vote of confidence if ever i saw it. Maybe Makinen sees a hint of his ex rival McRae in Meeke.. and is just intrigued. Im just willing Meeke to beat Citroens on a regular basis... and getting well paid doing it... revenge will be sweet. Then he can leave WRC on his terms.

[wia5958]

Meeke to Toyota... if true...it's even a win for him before he starts a single rally, and a big 2 fingers to Citroen management. Makinen obviously sees something in him. Look at all the options Tommi had, and Meeke came out on top... thats an endorsement and a vote of confidence if ever i saw it. Maybe Makinen sees a hint of his ex rival McRae in Meeke.. and is just intrigued. Im just willing Meeke to beat Citroens on a regular basis... and getting well paid doing it... revenge will be sweet. Then he can leave WRC on his terms.

Possibly. Id say he sees more the hype meeke brings to the stages. His on the limit style attracts fans which attracts them to their brand. Yes he may win rallys and yes he will bin it. But overall id say 70% is pr 30% actually to have him in the car

[mknight]

While out and about on WRGB I heard a few bits and pieces regarding a few of the topics, I don't know any of them to be fact, but here they are none the less.
Lappi fell out personally with Makinen over him leaving a test early for personal reasons, which was not authorised. Apparently at one stage end on WRGB he was handed a cap, looked at it and it had TMR logo on, so he threw it away.

If some falling-out is true then I guess he left on mutual agreement.

At that point Makinen had these options (random order):
-Paddon (no top speed on tarmac, not good results this year)
-Breen (still no win, seems inconsistent)
-Sordo (no speed on some rallies (Finland, GB), maybe doesn't want full season)
-Meeke
-Evans (not a real option)
-some young guy, but both Huttunen and Rovanpera are under contract

Not really surprising he picked Meeke. Would say that Breen was probably the only real competition.

Btw. lets recall what happened at Citroen:
Citroen kicked Meeke as number 1 and got Ogier instead. Anyone really thinks that's a bad switch?

[wrc2017]

Citroen kicked Meeke as number 1 and got Ogier instead. Anyone really thinks that's a bad switch?

Did they also not kick matton, 2nd in command, lead engineers ...and re-homologate fundamental things that should has been right from the start.

Smells of Citroens last throw of the dice... promises, promises promises to land Ogier. It could be the biggest mistake of his career... maybe not. but anything less than WRC driver titles will be a failure for Citroen and Ogier.

[GravelBen]

-Paddon (no top speed on tarmac, not good results this year)

1x 3rd, 2x 4th, 1x 5th, 1x 7th and 1x crashed out while leading.

I'd say those results aren't bad at all for a guy who has only been given half the seat time considering how tight the competition has been.

Seemed like he had more speed to offer in Finland too if the team hadn't needed him to play it safe for points with Neuville and Mikkelsen out of contention.