[WRC] News & Rumours 2021

[EstWRC]

But tanak is just unpolite every interview, it's not entertaining at all.

It would be even more boring then if he would be as polite as others

[mknight]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/is-ad...ed-about-2022/

Well I first heard rumors about Adamo maybe getting replaced from the time of ERC Barum.

But having a look on how this year has gone it's also hard to imagine how Hyundai rallying activities could get any worse:

WRC
- driver title is almost certainly gone
- there is a real risk of Toyota 1-2-3 in drivers
- manu title is definitely gone
- majority of this is due to "team failures" not drivers underperforming
- Loubet is a disaster (sure it's external money, but the car having technical issues every other rally surely isn't good PR)
- Breen who has been improving (on the few rallies he has started) likely leaving
- 2022 is seemingly delayed and being redesigned after Louriaux came from MSport and Puma development

WRC2/Rally2
- Redgrey (semi-) factory team basically disappeared, Veiby who was the only paying customer got banned, Gryazin left after last year and his performance massively improved
- driver title likely gone (Huttunen still has a chance)
- manu title gone
- new car was delayed, reliability disaster on debut rally
- performance of new car isn't massively impressive (yet?)
- afaik only championship where Hyundai is getting good results seems to be the Italian one

- Solberg's season is a disaster in both WRC and WRC2 except for Arctic


Adamo certainly brought more entertainment into WRC. But the atmosphere (and results) in Hyundai does seem to suffer, note Tanaks comments and behavior since Sardinia.

[satukata]

I don´t want to see more Adamo show. New boss please.

[Danny0405]

Difficult to make an evaluation of Adamo in the last 3 years.
He was appointed quite late before the 2019 season so he was not in charge when Hyundai hired Loeb over Paddon (from a strictly result-wise point of view, not a great move) and had few impact on the development of the car on that year as a lot was in the pipe (and Toyota was already taking the lead by end-2018).
And he was not the developer of the shared-car strategy as it was already used in 2018.
And on the last two years, complicated to focus on the development of the car with a new regulation to come + Covid whereas Toyota’s car was better since end 2018.

The Tanak move is not brilliant from a cost/benefit perspective so far, especially as it triggered Ogier’s hiring by Toyota (which wouldn’t have occurred without that). But, at least, Tanak was a strong contributor to Hyundai’s 2020 manufacturer title which was quite a miracle.

And for the Rally2 car, the debut rallye has been quite worrying but Citroen was nowhere when they launched the C3 R5. And the Polo had also reliability issue in its debut. We will really see by mid-2022 if this car has some potential.

So it’s difficult for me to evaluate him. On the one hand, Hyundai made back-to-back manufacturer titles whereas they didn’t win any title before but, on the other hand, they didn’t really improve against Toyota, the 2020 title was clearly a miracle and the 2019 title was deserved (thanks to the strategy) but clearly due to Latvala and Meeke’s failure (Meeke being the only Makinen’s bad choice maybe in his Toyota stint).
So, even if some can be «*seduced*» by his sharp style, he didn’t really bring solutions to Hyundai (but he might not be the only guilty of their current situation).

The only thing I know is that the 2022 season is crucial for Hyundai. Such a manufacturer dominated by VW, then M-Sport and then Toyota will not last forever. Yes, they clinched two titles but more by strategy than by quality. If the 2022 season is as bad as the current season, they will leave quite soon.

[mknight]

2020 manu title was entirely the result of fresh Rovanpera competing for points vs Loeb+Breen+Sordo with road position advantage. So it was Toyotas (Tommis?) mistake as well. One could argue that Toyota "sacrificed" one year for Rovanpera's development though.

Interesting view that hiring Tanak was a mistake. I'd say he was not only hired to bring results but also (mainly) to "hurt" Toyota by destroying the (at that time) fastest combination. I don't think Adamo thought that Ogier would switch from Citroen. Then the question is if Ogier+Toyota combination is actually more dangerous than Tanak+Toyota in terms of points and reliability even though stagetimes don't look as good.

[cali]

Just to end some confusion about speed and dominance etc
Ogier is just outsmarting everyone. Again.

https://www.juwra.com/season_2021_stats_stage_wins.html

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

[EstWRC]

Just to end some confusion about speed and dominance etc
Ogier is just outsmarting everyone. Again.

https://www.juwra.com/season_2021_stats_stage_wins.html

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

That + I think he hasn’t had any technical/mechanical glitches this year compared to his rivals ?

At least nothing comes to my mind.

[AnttiL]

We can't address Toyota losing manufacturer title in 2020 only to Toyota hiring Rovanperä. For example Evans going off in Monza, Ogier's engine blowing in Turkey or Ogier losing 2nd place to Neuville by one second in Sardinia. Any of these three would have gone differently and Toyota could have won. And we can add to this the weird punctures for Evans and Rovanperä in Estonia. Of course Rovanperä also went off in Sardegna where Hyundai's third driver won the event and they took a minute penalty in Estonia (otherwise would have been 2nd instead of 5th), but other than that he did a solid job.

[mknight]

Just to end some confusion about speed and dominance etc
Ogier is just outsmarting everyone. Again.

https://www.juwra.com/season_2021_stats_stage_wins.html

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

There is no confiusion. Ogier is dominating by combination of speed and brains.

Stagewins most of the rally after you crash out with own mistake on second stage are worth exactly nothing.

One would think that after his last 4 (likely) titles Ogier has shown everyone how you win WRC.

[mknight]

Of course Rovanperä also went off in Sardegna where Hyundai's third driver won the event and they took a minute penalty in Estonia (otherwise would have been 2nd instead of 5th), but other than that he did a solid job.

He did a great job for first year, but IMO he had an impossible task vs Loeb+Sordo+Breen.