2024 WRC News & Rumours

[SubaruNorway]

Gilsoul seems very stressed in many situations, maybe not the best for an un experienced driver

[EstWRC]

Anyone has access and can tell what Gilsoul says here?

https://www.autohebdo.fr/actualites/...-exclusif.html

[Paul Hudson]

Nicolas Gilsoul will no longer sit in the right seat of the Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1 driven by Pierre-Louis Loubet in the World Rally Championship. “ I admit I took an uppercut. I'm sitting in my chair , admits Thierry Neuville 's former co-driver, already fired at the start of 2021, just before the Monte-Carlo Rally . Frankly, I didn't see this decision coming .

[EstWRC]

Well the article goes further, no?

And I’m not so sure about this google translation

[TypeR]

Gilsoul:

,,Even though I rewatched the images from the on-board camera several times, I don't see where I could have made a mistake," the Belgian teammate told us, still in shock. "We were hurtling at 150 km/h with hidden curves. If I didn't announce it at that time, it would have been too late at the speed we were arriving. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't change a thing.
It's a unilateral decision that I didn't expect at all. I really don't understand. I took an uppercut there, admits Nico. After Finland again, Pirlouis called me to congratulate. I have 246 scratches and 43 podiums under my belt in the WRC. I'm not perfect, but I don't think I should take the blame for that. It's sad to end our contract like this rallies at the end of the season."

https://www.dhnet.be/sports/moteurs/...I6EWFVZUQOV4U/

[trykmann]

Gilsoul:


https://www.dhnet.be/sports/moteurs/...I6EWFVZUQOV4U/

My opinion on Loubet just dropped to the ground. It is quite unlikely such a experienced co-driver is the main cause for all the errors.

[wwbroe]

It was certainly no error of Nicolas, i think it is Loubet who should blame himself.

[sinepikohv]

It should return to its Tarmac roots, as it did for most of its history. Would break up the gravel events.

Excactly. I once talked to a Polish driver and a co-driver and they said that almost every round in the national championship is on tarmac. We have plenty of (fast) gravel events, in a 14 event calendar there should be at least four pure tarmac rallies.

[sinepikohv]

My opinion on Loubet just dropped to the ground. It is quite unlikely such a experienced co-driver is the main cause for all the errors.

Loubet's had three different co-drivers in WRC since 2021: Vincent Landais, Florian Haut-Labourdette and Gilsoul. Gilsoul is a proven winner at WRC level, Landais is winning with Ogier and Haut-Labourdette is still active so can't be useless either. I guess it's rather obvious that co-driver's are not at fault for Loubet's awful results.

In a way his merry-go-round reminds me of Gus Greensmith. He too has had plenty of co-drivers (Elliott Edmondson, Chris Patterson and Jonas Andersson) in the past few years and his results didn't get better too. But I don't recall Gus pointing fingers, just explaining he wanted a more experienced co-driver etc.

[seb_sh]

I don't know what happened with Loubet, he was decent in 2022 with Landais, same car same team and now this year he was all over the place. Reminds of Breen's year in MSport. Maybe he just wanted a refresh, maybe they didn't sync well, maybe he is looking for a scapegoat, I guess we'll see how he does going forward.