Silly Season 2022

**TypeR** · 22nd September 2021, 10:49

Originally Posted by navi

But strange choice. GB has a great pool of codriver talent at the moment.

without WRC experience..

**Got Mail** · 22nd September 2021, 12:27

Originally Posted by navi

But strange choice. GB has a great pool of codriver talent at the moment.

Why a strange choice?

**seb_sh** · 22nd September 2021, 20:51

So at MSport it can be anything between just Fourmaux/Greensmith or Mikkelsen/Breen/Fourmaux plus Greensmith and a few rallies for Loeb (who could also mentor Fourmaux). That's quite a big range. Seems Breen is in but in my opinion if they want to be serious they need Mikkelsen as well, Mikkelsen/Breen/Fourmaux looks like a team that can fight with Tanak/Neuville/Sordo-Solberg and Evans/Rovanpera/Ogier-Lappi. They won't be favourites but if the car is good they would be a proper team and not like the past two years. I hope they can find the budget for that and that the car is good.

**denkimi** · 22nd September 2021, 21:21

Originally Posted by seb_sh

So at MSport it can be anything between just Fourmaux/Greensmith or Mikkelsen/Breen/Fourmaux plus Greensmith and a few rallies for Loeb (who could also mentor Fourmaux). That's quite a big range. Seems Breen is in but in my opinion if they want to be serious they need Mikkelsen as well, Mikkelsen/Breen/Fourmaux looks like a team that can fight with Tanak/Neuville/Sordo-Solberg and Evans/Rovanpera/Ogier-Lappi. They won't be favourites but if the car is good they would be a proper team and not like the past two years. I hope they can find the budget for that and that the car is good.

i wouldn't expect to much. unless ford suddenly decides to improve their funding massively, it will be fourmaux, greensmith and some better 3th driver, probably breen.

**djip** · 22nd September 2021, 21:36

[QUOTE=denkimi;1283485]i wouldn't expect to much. unless ford suddenly decides to improve their funding massively, it will be fourmaux, greensmith and some better 3th driver, probably breen.[/QUOTE

Fourmeaux, Breen and a paying third driver which can be anybody from Greensmith to Mikkelsen to Gryazin. Even Loeb would attract soem sponsorship money I guess ... The last 3 could run only partial programs.

Anybody mentioning seriously Mikkelsen back at Hyunday as 3rd driver ? Sordo seems to have lost his mojo somehow and Solberg is definitely not ready. Adamo is no fool, he knows that, so he might as well put him in a 4th car - they have money to do so.

I also wonder why Ostberg is never mentioned. Sure he will never be world champion, but he has shown at least the same pace as Mikkelsen and is very reliable. Just what you like for a 3rd driver, always there in 4-5th place to pick up the points if your 2 lead drivers fail. Definitely not something you would count on from. a young, up-and-coming driver with a lot to prove...

**mknight** · 23rd September 2021, 05:47

Østberg would fit as a driver for fast gravel rallies in combination with Sordo. He was never great on tarmac, even though he seems to have improved in R5 I doubt anyone would put him in WRC on tarmac.

Anyway calling him very reliable is quite a stretch. He is reliable when he doesn't drive at full speed. Else there is an issue every two stages, often self induced. (lately in Greece he broke front suspension cause he jumped too much with RWD, before that in Estonia he first broke suspension on a jump and right after service got puncture cause he mowed down a concrete anti-cut).

**AnttiL** · 23rd September 2021, 06:53

Originally Posted by seb_sh

Mikkelsen/Breen/Fourmaux looks like a team that can fight with Tanak/Neuville/Sordo-Solberg and Evans/Rovanpera/Ogier-Lappi.

Only if the car is a lot better than Hyundai and Toyota.

It's also good to remember that Mikkelsen and Breen have done few WRC events during the 2-3 last seasons. There's new events and stages where they lack experience.

Breen has never won a WRC rally, Mikkelsen only in VW years, while Tänak, Neuville and Ogier are regular winners with Evans, Rovanperä and Sordo having won multiple times during the 2017 car era (and Lappi also once)

It would be interesting to see Breen as the "number one" driver, doing his first season without having to slow down for anyone, and getting to do the setups to his liking. However, there will also be some mental load, you need to be strong in all events, not just in the ones picked for you like in Hyundai lately. But I hope all the best for him, hopefully he gets a full season and it works out.

**mknight** · 23rd September 2021, 08:55

Hands up those who thought Evans would be able to fight for driver title at the end of 2019.
I certainly didn't.
Is the Toyota a lot better than Hyundai? Maybe, but definitely not like it was at end of 2018. Then you get Tanaks drop in performance the other way.

Margins seem so small that small differences between cars seem to matter more than small differences between pilots.

For the events, there were almost no new ones the last two years that they didn't do (in WRC or WRC2), and that are going to stay.

Anyway point is that (alphabetically): Breen Fourmaux, Mikkelsen team can have some chance for manus and has two drivers with podium chance on most rallies. Breen, Fourmaux, Greensmith has no chance of manus and one driver with podium chances. That's rather risky if you actually worry about results. (Malcolm might not, Ford might).

Take Citroen at start of 2017 with similar driver lineup. When the one driver runs into issues (for whatever reason) the other "young" drivers aren't there to bring good results. This again increases the pressure on the one driver and so forth...

**AnttiL** · 23rd September 2021, 09:20

During 2019-2021 Breen has skipped new stage material from:
- Monte Carlo (well, it changes every year anyway)
- Chile (if it returns)
- Portugal (whole Arganil area loop has been now driven twice for other drivers, also two other new stages this year)
- Sardinia (new stages every year)
- Safari
- Acropolis
- Catalunya (a handful of new tarmac stages since he did the event in 2018)

And Mikkelsen has skipped Portugal and Safari, and will skip Finland with lots of new stages where likely most will remain for 2022.

But yes, Breen-Fourmaux-Greensmith would be exactly like Citroen in 2017. Meeke was also seen as a title contender thanks to good rallies in 2016, but it never realized, and he was also responsible for messing with the car development. Hopefully Breen doesn't end up the same way.