[WRC] News & Rumours 2021

[Jarek Z]

I have to ask this question. Where does all the hate towards British drivers come from? WRC is full of drivers that have never won anything and never will, but it's only British drivers who receive so much criticism. I am not a frequent visitor in the News & Rumours thread, but even I noticed this.

Some examples:
Elfyn Evans - "he doesn't deserve the WRC title!"
Gus Greensmith - "he doesn't belong in WRC!"
Kris Meeke - "he constantly crashes and has had his chances already so go out!"
Chris Ingram - "he is not fast enough and doesn't win rallies"

Where does all this criticism come from? Is this because they left the European Union?

[Mirek]

I don't think that Evans is a target of some special criticism. I think it's the opposite and he has in fact large support among the forum members.

Meeke is bashed for crashing just like Duval or Atkinson was. It's not British thing.

Greensmith is bashed just like Rautenbach or others were. Nothing extraordinary here again.

Ingram's case is just that people are tired with Eddie's constant rants.

[Essaj]

Meeke is bashed for crashing just like Duval or Atkinson was. It's not British thing.

You could easily add Latvala to this list

Ingram's case is just that people are tired with Eddie's constant rants.

100%

[gps-monkey]

Very sad news. The Mosel area is one of the most beautiful in central Europe. Will it move to another place in Germany?

Maybe Bayern area.

[mknight]

I too haven't seen specific criticism of Evans as a driver. Sure if he makes a mistake he gets criticized, just like every other driver.

What is however often a topic is how he is treated by British journalists. Ex. the C. Clark Monza rating that gave him 10/10 when he crashed out and lost title:
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/colin...river-ratings/

[T16]

I too haven't seen specific criticism of Evans as a driver. Sure if he makes a mistake he gets criticized, just like every other driver.

What is however often a topic is how he is treated by British journalists. Ex. the C. Clark Monza rating that gave him 10/10 when he crashed out and lost title:
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/colin...river-ratings/

Anything that man says needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

When you say how he's treated by other journalists, do you mean that they give him a hard time, or just that Clarke did on that occasion?

[M3 Jambo]

Prior to Monte Carlo & Sweden 2020, a lot of 'fans' questioned whether he had the speed and was the real deal. Attitudes have changed since then IMO.

[AnttiL]

Prior to Monte Carlo & Sweden 2020, a lot of 'fans' questioned whether he had the speed and was the real deal. Attitudes have changed since then IMO.

To me it seemed the opposite

https://twitter.com/anttil_wrc/statu...862957057?s=21

[T16]

Prior to Monte Carlo & Sweden 2020, a lot of 'fans' questioned whether he had the speed and was the real deal. Attitudes have changed since then IMO.

Fans aren't journalists though. I was wondering if Mknight meant he'd been given a shitty run by any UK journalists, other than Clarke, who by the way is a complete fool for slating Evans like he did... it's a small fish pond and the last thing a British journo should do is piss off the only British driver, by giving him a completely unnecessary rating.. not a great move.

[mknight]

When you say how he's treated by other journalists, do you mean that they give him a hard time, or just that Clarke did on that occasion?

I think you misunderstood me.

IMO Evans is getting hyped a lot by British "rally journalists" - Clark, D. Evans, WRC promoter crew etc. Sometimes a bit out of place. It's also somewhat strange when both Clark and Evans were actually quite objective when talking about Meeke from mid 2017 onwards at least.

But I think I heard E. Evans is getting the opposite threatment by "mainstream" British sport journalists, so maybe they (rally journalists) feel a need to compensate.