Silly Season 2020

[Tarmop]

I highly doubt Paddon will start in Australia for this reason: https://www.hyundai.co.nz/community/hayden-paddon

From what I understand he has a lot of business ties to Hyundai, to the point where even his Ford WRC has a banner "HNZ". I would be very suprised if Hyundai allows him to steal the manufacturer's points needed for the title.

What on earth are you on about? Hyundai New Zealand, is his biggest supporter and wishes him all the best...hence that private (M-Sport) Fiesta has a HNZ logo, was supposed to run in Finland, ran in GB and will run in Australia. Hyundai Motorsport on the otherhand ditched him quite badly. Only way he wouldn`t start the event would probably be a min. 50% season in Hyundai 2020.

[Allez Andruet]

We need to remember that Tommi's background is farmer from central Finland, not CEO of HR consultancy agency. His achievements in TMR are quite decent so far.

Just a small correction: Tommi's background is being a four-time world rally champ. Last time he truly was a farmer we had Soviet Union and Germany was split into two different countries.

[Allez Andruet]

dont remember where i read it,but Latvala is at 4,5 m at Toyota.Dont know if its valiable the number though.

Don't know if it's 4,5M or something else, but it could be much higher than what his results from 2018 and 2019 would suggest. The deal was made in Dec 2016 and was for 2+1 years. So his 2019 base salary level was already set back then, based on the VW years.

[Rallyper]

and Marcus Grönholm has given his opinion:

https://www.is.fi/ralli/art-2000006289675.html?ref=rss
(in Finnish so ...)

Well, that´s about my opinion too...

[Rallyper]

Just saying that the stories about people leaving, bad atmosphere at the team, bad leadership and issues with the car reliability didn't come overnight with the news of Tänak's alledged deal with Hyundai, I've heard this stuff all along from 2017.

At least we read it on this forum...

[SubaruNorway]

Tänak?

EDIT: Obviously Østberg will be withdrawn now, but still you can think of the conflict of interest with Tänak driving against his future employer

Buddar had said after Ogier's problems on Friday that all hope was not lost for Østberg in Australia, if there was still hope after Sunday i don't know

[er88]

exactly, ive heard it too since 17.


and none of us here know what exactly are the reasons why Ott is leaving.

Well, maybe some guys know but they wont write about it here.

Well i don't think it's as bad as you guys think. Otherwise they wouldn't have had all this success - winning their 2nd ever rally, winning the constructors title in their 2nd season, the drivers title in their 3rd...

Would love to see how bad the atmosphere has been at Hyundai and Citroen in those few years, where drivers have left/been sacked/ benched/ used the smallprint in their contracts to remain in the team, managers have lost their jobs, engineers and technical directors have been replaced etc, and neither team has won anything of note.

So for all the criticism Tommi gets, it's only fair to point out the superb job he has also done. A team boss isn't paid to make people like him - Adamo will tell you that. But the people at Toyota clearly respect Tommi otherwise the team success wouldn't be possible. Tanak is clearly difficult/ demanding to work with as well, but between them Ott and Tommi have made it work for the last two years.

It is not like Makinen and Toyoda won't have tried their best to keep Tanak, losing him is a huge loss. So I get that questions have to be asked of Tommi and how this has happened, but Toyoda and Makinen are on the same page. Whatever Tanak has issues with or has demanded, hasn't been solved by speaking with Toyoda and the Japanese people. If Ott's mind has been set on going, sometimes it's not possible to change peoples mind no matter what.

[denkimi]

Don't know if it's 4,5M or something else, but it could be much higher than what his results from 2018 and 2019 would suggest. The deal was made in Dec 2016 and was for 2+1 years. So his 2019 base salary level was already set back then, based on the VW years.

Remember when tommi said he didn't need ogier because he already had latvala?
Lol.

[Indreq]

Like Tanak for the moment - still linked to Malcolm because of paying back money (so Malcolm needs to know about Tanaks contracts immediately, as that's all part of their deal)

I didnt know its public info. I have heard it but only once or twice "confidentially", so i dismissed it as speculation.

[dimviii]

tomorrow at Marca would be Tanaks interview
https://twitter.com/NachoVillarin/st...72203507974144