Silly Season 2022

[seb_sh]

Toyota pushes to have a Japanese driver in all their official teams. Each WEC car has a Japanese driver. Now Katsuta is clearly not good enough for the main team, but there will always be budget for a full season Japanese driver. They recently started a new junior program as well. I suspect there are big marketing opportunities in Japan by having a Japanese driver.

[mknight]

Well I am not saying it's bad. Specially since Katsuta is 4th car and not taking a drive from anyone and he clearly has some talent. Though I doubt he can be a champion he might win some rallies.

[seb_sh]

Well I am not saying it's bad. Specially since Katsuta is 4th car and not taking a drive from anyone and he clearly has some talent. Though I doubt he can be a champion he might win some rallies.

Indeed he has some good performances so he's not a wasted space. I think the strategy to make a junior team might help in the manufacturer title. Katsuta is capable of podiums on some rallies so should take some points away from Hyundai.

[pantealex]

Everyone knows that Lappi is faster than Katsuta.
but for B-team it´s Japanise driver or nothing, I prefer Japanise driver, better than nothing.


Also many others are faster than Greensmith/Loubet but who pays drives ...

[mknight]

How do you explain Makinen preferring Latvala over Ogier at end of 2016?

[denkimi]

How do you explain Makinen preferring Latvala over Ogier at end of 2016?

Because makinen is retarded.

[rp]

How do you explain Makinen preferring Latvala over Ogier at end of 2016?

What do you mean? Ogier was testing Yaris before any decision was made. He thought that the car is not ready and selected M-Sport.

[ouvreur]

What do you mean? Ogier was testing Yaris before any decision was made. He thought that the car is not ready and selected M-Sport.

Exactly. It wasn't Makinen's decision to make... and if both had been available, both would have ended up at Toyota.

[mknight]

It's common knowledge, also confirmed by Makinen that he didn't want Ogier and Japan insisted on making him an offer and letting him test.

So Makinen made sure Ogier wouldn't want to join. Letting him drive on the second ever test of the car on tarmac (and first ever on wet tarmac), rather than in Finland where the car was at its best.
Compare that with MSport that put Ogier on their private test track where they knew how to set the car up.

[AnttiL]

It's common knowledge, also confirmed by Makinen that he didn't want Ogier and Japan insisted on making him an offer and letting him test.

So Makinen made sure Ogier wouldn't want to join. Letting him drive on the second ever test of the car on tarmac (and first ever on wet tarmac), rather than in Finland where the car was at its best.
Compare that with MSport that put Ogier on their private test track where they knew how to set the car up.

You have to remember the talks at the time, everyone thought Toyota was just a village team and the car would hardly match R5's. Meanwhile M-Sport was known already for making the best cars when new regulations arrive. And Latvala has also said he made big changes to the car when he joined the team, to make it a winning car like it was in 2017.

It's also worth remembering that Toyota didn't aim for wins or titles in 2017 and they didn't expect to be so competitive. It would have been embarrassing for them to have Ogier struggle in their car, (kind of like Citroen in 2019). Meanwhile they were just looking for someone to develop the car and build up the action towards following years, and maybe they felt Latvala is better for communicating in the Finnish team.

But like always, we might never know.