Silly Season 2022

[pantealex]

Many here accept that Greensmith takes 1 seat with money. What if KIMI (or someone else with big pockets) wants to buy a ride in 3rd car ?

Are you OK with that too ?

I mean situation where 4th or 5th car isn´t available and therefore some fast driver must sit out.

Also with other teams than just MSport

[AnttiL]

Other teams’ budgets are not based on paying customers so they would just say ”sorry, please come later when we have more cars”

As for M-Sport, why would they sack Greensmith to let Kimi drive assuming the price is the same?

[mknight]

Who was available that could score more? Lappi maybe if he didn't go to Ford? Whoever it was needed to beat Loeb in Turkey and Sordo in Monza, otherwise you need someone who can beat "the big 4" in other rallies. Maybe if Toyota went with multiple drivers to profit from road position, but again who was available? Paddon? Hyundai simply had the better cards this time.

When Rovanpera was decided to be 3rd driver it was supposed to be Ogier's last season. What I meant was that they put a young driver in a full factory seat and now they have another rally winner and a clear driver for the future.

Mikkelsen was available.

You know the guy that just ended 4th in WRC (narrowly) beating Evans with same number of starts. That Evans that went to Toyota from that 5th place and almost won title. (and both of them beat Latvala, Meeke and Lappi who did 2 more rounds).

This big improvement of Evans was actually what gave Toyota some title chance in the first place. If Evans performed more in line with his previous years Toyota wouldn't stand any chance.

[Danny0405]

You know the guy that just ended 4th in WRC (narrowly) beating Evans with same number of starts.

Not really comparable as Evans was in M-Sport and Mikkelsen in Hyundai and Mikkelsen’s 10-round program was more favourable than Evans’.

But yeah Toyota may have chosen another driver than Rovanpera but taking Rovis is an investment for them. Maybe it costs them a manufacturer title (and it is too easy to summarize it like this I think) but the return on investment could be great.
And another team may have hired him without this offer.

[seb_sh]

Fair enough, you could put Mikkelsen in and you have a better chance at the title if you consider he would be at Evans' level or above. But you also need to look long term and for that I would argue there is more future potential in Rovanpera.

[mknight]

The initial argument was that putting Rovanpera full time in 3rd car lost them manu title in 2020. That stands.
Using Mikkelsen in that seat or using him only for some rallies while Rovanpera drove in an extra car would have given them much better chance.

IMO it's quite hard to argue that Rovanpera's development would go slower if he wasn't nominated on some rallies as long as he would start them. Car availability doesn't seem to be a problem at Toyota (ref Lappi in Finland, Latvala last year). So it was only a question of money and management choice.

[BigWorm]

The initial argument was that putting Rovanpera full time in 3rd car lost them manu title in 2020. That stands.

Or Ogier's engine giving up in Turkey, or Evans going off from 3rd in Monza.

[meh]

The initial argument was that putting Rovanpera full time in 3rd car lost them manu title in 2020. That stands.

Is this argument still for real? 5 points difference and this was ONLY because it was Rovanperä as 3rd driver? It can be f*cking whatever. Tiny mistake by whoever which cost position. Some puncture. For Ogier or Evans as well. Over season 5 point win is a bit question of luck already.

[seb_sh]

The initial argument was that putting Rovanpera full time in 3rd car lost them manu title in 2020. That stands.
Using Mikkelsen in that seat or using him only for some rallies while Rovanpera drove in an extra car would have given them much better chance.

IMO it's quite hard to argue that Rovanpera's development would go slower if he wasn't nominated on some rallies as long as he would start them. Car availability doesn't seem to be a problem at Toyota (ref Lappi in Finland, Latvala last year). So it was only a question of money and management choice.

I don't know the car/budget situation at Toyota. Lappi seems to have paid for the drive in an older spec car. And Katsuta you can put an asterisk on why there is budget for a 4th car. Ok on paper you can say 'Mikkelsen would have scored more manufacturer points for Toyota than Rovanpera' assuming Mikkelsen has a very similar performance trajectory to Evans in that car. What if there was no pandemic and Rovanpera got more km in the car, maybe he would be on more podiums already at the end of last year.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

2020 Driver Points:
Rovanpera 80
Hyundai's Third 91

Kalle did pretty well vs the Hyundai Third considering they were on their favourite events and with better road positions.