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  1. #1391
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    Esapekka Lappi Rally
    @EsapekkaLappi
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    3h
    I'm not going to lie, this is very bad news for me, for us and whole rally family. I feel sorry for the staff and the fans. But no can do.
    Work has started to find other seat for next years.
    Not much time but I have a good and strong team around me.

  2. #1392
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    Quote Originally Posted by AnttiL View Post
    To me Evans to Toyota is already confirmed as much as Kalle.

    According to today's news/rumours, the teams are:

    Hyundai: Tänak, Neuville, Sordo/Loeb
    Toyota: Ogier, Evans, Rovanperä
    M-Sport: Lappi, Suninen
    This is the current rumor situation yes.

    For me this is also somewhat the worst case team setup.

    Toyota could definitely have one more experienced driver and use Kalle as 4th car and they should if they want to be serious about manu champs.
    Msport should have one experienced driver. Lappi isn't experienced in my eyes, as he has proven on multiple rallies this year. More of a "potential" winner. Ideally they would have both Lappi, Suninen and one more driver with Greensmith only for 4th car.

  3. #1393
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    The worst part about this exodus is the lack of any privateers. During the 2000's and into this decade teams like Adapta, OMV, Munchis etc filled in the gaps left by the Manus and still have room for a bunch WRC cars on the stages. Now it's nearly impossible for privateers to join and they'll all end up going to R5.

  4. Likes: AndyRAC (20th November 2019),er88 (20th November 2019),Japé (20th November 2019),pantealex (20th November 2019),Sulland (20th November 2019),tomhlord (20th November 2019)
  5. #1394
    Senior Member er88's Avatar
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    Kalle would make so much sense running in a pressure free 4th car, and Toyota could have kept Meeke/ Latvala or signed Mikkelsen etc, but the problem is Katsuta. He's Japanese and by all accounts will run in a 4th Yaris for most of the season, so Toyota running 5 cars is probably just too much of a stretch. (Unless fingers crossed, the Redbull millions could be put to additional good use).

  6. #1395
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    Quote Originally Posted by Crazy J View Post
    Someone should call to John Elkann, at least he is motorsports fan. Maybe he could negotiate with Koreans restoring Loeb to Citroen to have a first class driver and start to chase the tenth title
    Loeb is good , but not that good.

  7. #1396
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    Quote Originally Posted by steve.mandzij View Post
    The worst part about this exodus is the lack of any privateers. During the 2000's and into this decade teams like Adapta, OMV, Munchis etc filled in the gaps left by the Manus and still have room for a bunch WRC cars on the stages. Now it's nearly impossible for privateers to join and they'll all end up going to R5.
    I think this was mentioned at the start of 2017; the cars were prohibitively expensive for Privateers. In fact, I seem to remember many comments back in the summer of 2016 that the new car regs weren't the panacea everybody hoped they would be.

    To use paraphrase a British politician; 'it's boom and bust'

    Is there a better sound than that of Porsche engined Flat-6 ???

  8. Likes: steve.mandzij (20th November 2019)
  9. #1397
    Senior Member EstWRC's Avatar
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    anyone? https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...y-from-citroen

    i have reached my limit this month
    #8 Ott Tänak - Martin Järveoja #8
    - World Rally Champions 2019 -

  10. #1398
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    Quote Originally Posted by EstWRC View Post
    anyone? https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...y-from-citroen

    i have reached my limit this month
    Sebastien Ogier has spoken exclusively to Autosport to explain his decision to leave Citroen's World Rally Championship team with a year to run on his contract.

    Citroen's cited Ogier's departure for Toyota - a deal expected to be announced next week - as the reason for its withdrawal from the WRC in an announcement made on Wednesday.

    The six-time champion admitted he was surprised at the wording of Citroen's communication, but refused to comment on speculation that he first read the press release on the internet.

    Ogier told Autosport: "Maybe communication hasn't always been the strongest point for Citroen..."

    Citroen's exit - read for free
    A sad end for a great team - and a huge blow to the WRC

    He was also concerned about the message Citroen had sent to other competitors in the WRC, adding: "When they say there is no other drivers available, in this moment, I feel this is disrespectful for my colleagues in the sport."

    Talking specifically about why he was leaving his second stint with Citroen early, Ogier said: "One of the main things which drove this decision was the rhythm of development on the car and the speed the car was progressing, which was not enough.

    "Already this year, we could agree there wasn't enough development coming and we were down in performance against our competitors and it's not just me saying that - it's anybody who drove this car, I think, is feeling the same way."

    Despite his departure and the nature of Citroen's announcement, Ogier said he had no regrets about returning to the team where he started his professional career.

    "I was aware since I joined the team about the difficulty of this challenge and I was never afraid of this," he said.

    "That's why, even today, I have absolutely no regrets to try this challenge, even if it failed."

  11. Likes: cali (20th November 2019),EstWRC (20th November 2019),MTA (20th November 2019),RS (20th November 2019),steve.mandzij (20th November 2019)
  12. #1399
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    Boudar at autosport.


    Citroen's World Rally Championship pullout announcement had been anticipated for a week, and its statement pointed strongly towards Sebastien Ogier's decision to leave as the cause.

    But was it that simple? Citroen team principal Pierre Budar spoke exclusively to Autosport about the other factors behind the move.
    Were the WRC calendar, its profile or the regulations elements in Citroen's decision?

    For sure it's part of the problem. It's also very important for a brand like Citroen to make sure the situation of the championship is in-line with its marketing expectation.

    When you see how much we need to push for the electrification of our brand and products and the marketing we need to push these cars on sales, it's really difficult for a brand like Citroen not to focus on this and if the sporting discipline cannot help it's a real problem.

    Citroen's exit - read for free
    A sad end for a great team - and a huge blow to the WRC

    One of our main targets is to develop in international markets; India is a major project for the brand and there is nothing on this side possible for the motorsport, this is not very good. China is the same situation.

    Yes, for sure, we are not very strong when we go to the CEO to explain what we could do for the marketing of the brand when we cannot give any answers on these items - which are major items today for our marketing department. It's part of the lack of our proposal.

    You were active in hybrid WRC rules meetings until recently - when was this decision taken?

    Of course we had several scenarios pondering for a while and it has been decided to relaunch Peugeot in WEC. We have already DS involved in Formula E and we couldn't get a third programme and have a good level of performance with three main programmes in the same organisation.

    So when the decision has been made for Peugeot somewhere [in PSA] the decision has been made for Citroen not to be involved in the hybrid WRC in 2022.
    Was there ever a chance, in your opinion, that Peugeot, for example, could enter the WRC instead of the WEC?

    [That] could have been a scenario also. But it has been decided to go for WEC because this programme was more online with expectation on Peugeot's side. I don't want to comment on this choice by Peugeot - I'm not in a position to do so.
    Were alternative drivers - such as Andreas Mikkelsen or Craig Breen - considered?

    When you want to be involved in the championship and the fight for the title then you need one of the 'big three'. So, as far as you have tried your best to get one of them and you couldn't get them then you need to do a decision. That's what we have done.
    Was Citroen competitive enough to keep Ogier happy?

    I am quite sure we have made a lot of progress during the year and we had a lot of ongoing development that would have been ready for Monte Carlo, but this is the problem - of course from Sebastien's point of view it would have been better to have it before and we can agree with this, but it cannot be possible.

    We lost the time at the beginning of the year, but that's why we should need two years for this project because the first one was for sure a bit complicated. I am quite convinced we would have started the season in a much better position than this year.

    https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...team-boss-view

  13. Likes: cali (20th November 2019),TWRC (20th November 2019)
  14. #1400
    Senior Member Rallyper's Avatar
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    Well, this upcoming situation makes it possible for Malcolm to hire top drivers for cheap money, that´s for sure.

    If he isn´t seeing the good in this situation he has lost his business abilities.
    "Reis vas pät pat kaar vas kut"
    Tommi Mäkinen, back in the years...

  15. Likes: pantealex (20th November 2019)

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