Silly Season 2022

[seb_sh]

Let's say the cars are about equal with some advantages and disadvantages in certain conditions. Then if you have Breen-Fourmaux-Greensmith it is almost assured last place for the reasons AnttiL and mknight pointed out. If you replace Greensmith with Mikkelsen you have in theory a much stronger team and you can fight, you will still be the underdog team but you have all the chances you can get with what is on the market at the moment.

I don't count Ostberg as he has enough time in top WRC to show what he can, he's bad on tarmac and when he tries to drive fast issues "appear" way too often to be just bad luck so I think we have a good indication of his level. MSport doesn't need that, they need an Ogier/Tanak/Evans/Neuville (ironically all have gone through MSport), and they couldn't get any of them so for me the next best thing is Mikkelsen because my feeling is he MAY be able to make the step to that level. I think Mikkelsen was growing well at VW and was unlucky when they pulled out and didn't get a team, it was probably a mistake for Citroen to not hire him then.

[denkimi]

There's just no way msport is going to end up before hyundai and toyota in the championship. Just forget about that. They don't have the money and they don't have the drivers.

The best they can hope for is winning a rally.

[fiscorpun]

At this point Im just hoping for a RedBull colored Msport with Gryazin, Mikkelsen and Fourmaux (all redbull sponsored already, eh?)

[Logan_93]

Maybe Greensmith does the best job by keeping M-Sport in the WRC through bringing in the much needed funding? Anyway I hope they can afford to pay a top driver next year.

Exactly. It’s not necessarily a case of them choosing a paydriver over someone who may potentially have a higher ceiling (like a Mikkelsen) because they think that will get the best results.
It’s a case where if they don’t choose the paydriver, the car won’t be able to run at all.

[AnttiL]

https://twitter.com/OliverSolberg01/...11448299413505

Oliver Solberg goes to Finland with Craig Drew

[AnttiL]

https://www.rallit.fi/espanjasta-kan...isen-kannalta/

According to Marca magazine, Oliver Solberg is sharing the third Hyundai with Dani Sordo. Pepe Lopez would also join the WRC2 team.

[meh]

Some cryptic message from Paddon?

https://twitter.com/HaydenPaddon/sta...03359778426881

"While not there, looking forward to following Rally Finland this week! Always one of my favourite events and famous for the big jumps. Hopefully we will be back there next year Winking face #paddonspack"

[djip]

Some cryptic message from Paddon?

https://twitter.com/HaydenPaddon/sta...03359778426881

"While not there, looking forward to following Rally Finland this week! Always one of my favourite events and famous for the big jumps. Hopefully we will be back there next year Winking face #paddonspack"

A Paddon/Sordo 3rd car sharing with Solberg in a 4th car would work wonders for Hyundai (and anyway way much better than throwing young Solberg under the bus). They say in french "only fools never change their minds". No harm in admitting that binning Paddon a few years back was a mistake (and it wasn't Adamo's).

[AnttiL]

My guess would be that Paddon is going for a some sort of private program, possibly in WRC2. Would be risky to put someone in the main team who has been off the championship for three years.

[mknight]

Hyundai just got a new Rally2 car.

No harm in admitting that binning Paddon a few years back was a mistake (and it wasn't Adamo's).

Adamo (with Penasse) picked Breen over Paddon for 2019 Finland.

Which in a way was even worse than binning him at end of 2018 by hiring Loeb (not 100% sure whether Nandan or Adamo hired Loeb btw.). At end of 2018 Loeb just won a rally while Paddon had a mediocre season.

By the time of Finland Breen had worse WRC results than Paddon, only drove R5 on a few local rallies with decent but not great results and had no knowledge of Hyundai. Paddon had podium from last start with Hyundai just half a year before. But was outside of Europe completely since that time, which likely doomed him.

Breen was seen by "everyone" as a much more risky choice. Hard to say whether it was good also. Breen did some good times in Finland, but in the end his hiring did nothing for Hyundai manu points. Similarly his start in GB did nothing for the team, except repairs. Same with Sweden. First on his 4th rally with the team in Estonia 2020 he actually contributed.