Silly Season 2019

[Gregor-y]

Surely Red Bull are gone. If I were Malcolm I think I'd have tried to roll out some excellent hospitality for Spain and in connection with Block being there, tried to entice the likes of Monster Energy, Sonax or even Ford Performance (USA) to attend and get onboard with the WRC... They'd be a perfect partner for a 'youth' team of Sunninen, Breen, Evans/Tiedemans and occasional Block! Easier said than done though I suppose.

To hell with Ford and specifically Ford US. Other than the Mustang they will not be selling cars in the US and Canada and are gutting their staff in Michigan. If any money comes from there it's because someone in the Ford family is drunk and/or delusional, not with the personal enthusiasm that's driving Toyota. But if money comes take it, by all means. Malcolm has a lot of work ahead to stay in top rank of the WRC. Block turns 51 this year so don't expect much more than name recognition and some Monster money. Again, the money's not a bad thing, though.

[Norm75]

who have been Meekes teammates so far? Sordo, Ostberg and Breen come to my mind.

Hoe did he do against Sordo on Mini days?

Try Loeb. Not suggesting Kris is by any means the driver that seb was, but outright speed he didn't fair too badly against Loeb's stage times.

[mknight]

That fact then, plus extra money on offer at Citroen is probably what has made Lappi jump ship then.

Would it be fair to say Tanak has scared Lappi away?

Or is there just more behind the scenes issues that have resulted in Lappi moving on?

It really doesn't seem like Makinen is too bothered either. They could afford to keep Lappi if they desperately wanted to, but both Makinen and Lappi seem to want to look elsewhere. Makinen sounded like he wanted Meeke as soon as he was dumped by Citroen.

Well both Latvala and Lappi have made comments already around march that changes proposed by Tanak moved the car away from them. So there might be some truth in that.

Then again Lappi made comments about "seeing no reason to leave". Which now almost makes it looks like he got kicked by Makinen to get place for Meeke.

If Makinen is mostly focused on maximum manu chances+PR in next 1-2 years, then picking Meeke might be better option than Lappi. Obviously Lappi is now the most promising "new" driver. But might be that Makinen doesn't believe in him and wants to wait for others (Suninen, Rovanpera or the Japanese).

[Fast Eddie WRC]

If the BBC are reporting it then it's done.

BBC are just repeating the 'reports' of Meeke to Citroen, not confirming it.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

The latter seems to be pretty big IF at the moment. I don't know what the financial input from Ford has been during the past few years when they haven't been in WRC as an official works team, but probably they've covered some of the expenses anyway. If that is about to change, and I don't want to sound disrespectful by any means, but I'm not sure if any wage from any Ford dealership or any money from Breen family is enough to compensate that. If Ford is out, together with RB as a title sponsor, I'd guess we're talking about money around the magnitude of 10M€+ which might be too much to overcome for these fellas. That would probably require some of that Abu Dhabi money...

As I understand it, Ford Performance are still to carry on supporting M-Sport with the car. Just maybe not as much as Ogier wanted.

They have never been paying driver wages so that isnt any different.

Evans is a Red Bull athlete, so is Suninen. They are sponsored independently from the M-Sport team deal.

I agree a new headline sponsor will probably be important to continue, but they have competed without one before..

[Oliverk]

Mby Lappi is just not good enough? With Rovanpera coming, Tommi just don't care about him. He has the best driver/car builder at the moment. And prob best second driver that is accepting his role. Neuville or Ogier as second driver is obvious no go. So prob he sees some commercial value in Meeke to offer him a drive for a year until Rovanperä arrives.

[mknight]

Mby Lappi is just not good enough? With Rovanpera coming, Tommi just don't care about him. He has the best driver/car builder at the moment. And prob best second driver that is accepting his role. Neuville or Ogier as second driver is obvious no go. So prob he sees some commercial value in Meeke to offer him a drive for a year until Rovanperä arrives.

Lappi has more points than Latvala and has been regularly faster than him most of the season. It's Lappi's first full season (so he has not driven 1/3 of the rallies before in WRC). That's seriously early to think he is not good enough, though yes he might be slower on pure speed than Meeke atm, but likely getting better points.

Off course none of this means that Tommi "believes" in Lappi, which might be what you mean.

Btw. Ogier on his first full season (2009) was told to learn and take it easy and was basically the slowest factory WRC in all rallies. (He even had lass points than Matt Wilson overall)

Without discussing whether Latvala is best second driver (pretty close with Lappi and Mikkelsen there), I wonder how you get that he is accepting his role.

[dimviii]

Try Loeb. Not suggesting Kris is by any means the driver that seb was, but outright speed he didn't fair too badly against Loeb's stage times.

Μeeke was faster from Loeb at just one stage at last day.At all other stages Loeb was faster.
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results...2018/?s=160648

[Norm75]

Μeeke was faster from Loeb at just one stage at last day.At all other stages Loeb was faster.
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results...2018/?s=160648

Yes, I didn't say he was faster, I said he didn't fair too badly against Loeb's stage times.
Loeb is a class act. To be anywhere near his stage times in the same car is impressive. Many of the stages Kris was quite close.

[Norm75]

And go back and look at rally Mexico stage times.
More like 50/50 between the two.