Silly Season 2020

[Crazy J]

Reading comments from different forums and media last couple of days, it looks quite clear that someone has machined shitstorm against TMR, Tommi, Kaj and others. Some doubts if it was really deserved? Maybe it is appealing to first machine shitstorm in media and then try to hijack WRC business from TMR. Probably most of the mentioned issues are quite natural in this area and no one has said that running WRC team successfully is like a walk in the park. With salary levels in Finland and Estonia, you can't meet WRC team salaries from central Europe/UK, costs needs to be kept low. Neither is the Finland/Estonia as a location or cultural environment appealing to keep foreign resources in a team for a longer period. Change in personnel is typical especially in new and remote organizations. It would be weird e.g. if Citroen would have more resource transition than TMR. What comes to Tommi and Kaj, they have been that sort of typical steady Finnish persons forever and probably even improved from HR and PR skills during the TMR period. 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.

Part of the WRC's popularity in the past was that teammates were competing against each other. Now people are blaming Tommi keeping the team internal competition open unlike other teams. Is "only 1 driver per team" F1 type of competition what we really want to see in WRC? Tommi's philosophy might have been that drivers will sort their order by driving and after couple of rallies it is clear and from then on nro 1 driver gets more attention than others. Would be alarming to hear if TMR has not given Tanak attention he has wanted/deserved. What comes to team aspect, Tommi has said in media that Tanak is nro 1 but has he ever restricted Tanak's driving because of Latvala or Meeke crashing, probably not. Letting 2nd or 3rd driver to drive freely their own best speed does not meant that he would allow or encourage them to crash constantly. Tommi is maybe even too supportive for underperforming drivers, unlike Adamo. In this case Tommi is following more known HR theories than Adamo. Same comes to loyalty that Japanese and Toyota also respects.

What comes to lot spoken leaving of Lappi, probably no one restricted him to show that he could be nro 1 driver in Toyota. nro 3 does not naturally get as big attention and salary as nro 1. At the state of his career probably Lappi got better deal from Citroen and same time TMR/TGR noticed that Lappi will not instantly become new Ogier and TMR has therefore valued Meeke's driving/engineering/PR skills to be more needed asset for them atm.

Also very hard to see why TMR would not like to continue commitment and co-operation with MMM and Tanak. Furthermore if TMR would not have mutual respect towards Estonian personnel, half of the TMR would not be Estonian as currently. For sure TMR will be very disappointed in case if Tanak is leaving. Also what comes to Japanese culture, leaving from Japanese brand to Korean might be not looked well compared e.g. moving from Japanese team to other Japanese team.

[EstWRC]

Spanish media should be taken with pinch of salt but Pipo Lopez is writing that Tänak has tested the Hyundai and he liked it.

[COD]

Running Rovanpera full season is only a good idea if he is in 4th/non-nominated car. Here I completely agree with C.Clark, there is no point in putting any pressure on him on having to finish rallies.

Agree 100%

[Owe Johansson]

Well written!

[mknight]

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.

I think he could start and drive normally and then if needed follow Hyundai team orders on second loop on Sunday.

[er88]

I find it funny that Tanak is supposedly crying about not being #1 in Toyota (he clearly is), and teammates taking pts in power stages from him etc etc, to then go and join Hyundai where for sure he will have equal status with Neuville - who is a near equal to him in current driver ability (certainly more so than Meeke and Latvala).

That tells me that surely this hasn't been a big factor at all in Tanak's reasoning for leaving Toyota.

Meeke pushed in Portugal under orders from Tommi, and in Finland Meeke and Latvala were pushing before both made mistakes, but next season Tanak will have Neuville breathing up his ass on most events (or ahead of him).

Money + car reliability + working/personal relationship with Tommi will by why he has left. Maybe throw in the R5 project with MM too.

[mknight]

With salary levels in Finland and Estonia, you can't meet WRC team salaries from central Europe/UK, costs needs to be kept low.

Didn't quite get why salary levels are a topic but the team part in Estonia is obviously to have lower salaries. With that in mind I can't see how average salary levels for Finnish and Estonian parts together can be much higher than in UK(Msport),"West" Germany (Hyundai) or France.

Anyway the very high TMR profit shows that there certainly is room to use more money.

About the "it's all a conspiracy"...

The repeating reliability issues are a hard fact for last 3 years.

[AnttiL]

Reading comments from different forums and media last couple of days, it looks quite clear that someone has machined shitstorm against TMR, Tommi, Kaj and others.

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.

[EstWRC]

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.

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.

[dimviii]

. Don't know what Tanak will have been demanding, but I'm sure it'll have been anywhere between €5-10m a year, which is a lot.

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