Silly Season 2022

[Got Mail]

Before I heard the rumor 1,5 months ago I never even thought about it. Nobody really had any rumors about Penasse before he got kicked either.

Anyway the results this year are a disaster in multiple ways as was listed before, no reason to repeat it.

Another thing is his personality.
2 years ago I though he was ruthless, but clever. Since then my opinion of him changed to a "panic manager" that changes his "beliefs" on the spot. One rally he talks about some principles that he always has, 4 rallies later he does the opposite and says that was always his opinion.
Lately "kicking" Solberg upwards after every crash on a whim is starting to border craziness.

Note how the Hyundai results seem to go down while the number of his strange decisions increases.

I think he's a dick.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

It seems that Breen signed to M-Sport a while ago as he couldnt turn down the offer of a full-time drive.

This then left Adamo with a problem of who to sign to help their 2022 Manu's challenge, while also keeping the Solberg's on-board for the future.

[seb_sh]

Besides the aparent chaos i don't think the Hyundai driver choice was and is bad. They already have 2 potential champion drivers and Sordo/Breen for the third car was not bad at all. Toyota accepted a risk and put Kalle in the third nominated car and it paid off. They could do that as they had Ogier and Evans, also two potential champions. Now Hyundai is taking the risk with Solberg but since he's not proven they are mixing their chances and keeping the "known quantity" in Sordo, putting this in context of still having the two potential champions Tanak and Neuville, then the risk is only for one car for half a season. I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem at Hyundai is pressure and rushing things which leads to mistakes, unpreparedness and reliability issues. At least that's the vibe i'm getting.

[mknight]

Millener says Breen came to them himself in Sardinia asking for a drive which was signed after Safari and before Estonia.

There seem to be some good reasons for the timing of the first meeting:
- Solberg just announced for Safari and didn't start crashing (that much) yet (= the reason)
- Suninen crashed on first stage again (= the opportunity)
- Fiesta just did some good stagetimes in Portugal and Croatia (= also a reason)

But on the other side Breen had pretty meh results before Estonia ( 4th and last Hyundai in Arctic that should suit him and crash out of 5th as last Hyundai in Croatia), so maybe the most surprising part is that Malcolm wanted to sign him at that point.

Anyway it is then possible that Adamo maybe got more interested in giving him a full time drive after Ypres, but by then it was too late.

[AnttiL]

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/green...t-after-spain/

[skarderud]

Solberg had a bad season, all drivers have this kind of season sometimes, remember Rovenpära also had a season like this in Skoda (2019?).
Its a risk to promote him to top class, but it was also a risk to put Rovenpära in top class in 2020. Worked quite well.

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[steve.mandzij]

Solberg had a bad season, all drivers have this kind of season sometimes, remember Rovenpära also had a season like this in Skoda (2019?).
Its a risk to promote him to top class, but it was also a risk to put Rovenpära in top class in 2020. Worked quite well.

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Rovanpera did an entire season of WRC2 only, frequently showed strong pace, and won the championship at the end of the year.

Solberg has finished two (2) WRC rallies all year and retired from six (6), four of those retirements owing to damage he caused on the stages.

It's not a risk to promote Solberg to the top class right now, it's just delusional.

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[Co-FIN]

..

[denkimi]

Toyota accepted a risk and put Kalle in the third nominated car and it paid off.

No it didn't, they lost the 2020 title due to it.

[AnttiL]

No it didn't, they lost the 2020 title due to it.

or because of Evans crashing in Monza, or Ogier's engine blowing in Turkey, or Ogier losing to Neuville by fractions in Sardegna...it's not so simple.