Alert !!! Intruders !!!

[Corny]

That'll be at least in August.

No, it won't be.. You know how Citroën is

[FrankenSchwinn]

aff, you sorta hit the balls with your foot, but i would venture in thinking that mikko was put there. think about it, marcus' contract is up this year and he costs a lot of money. malcolm does not want to say no to the guy, nor does he want to show ford that not resigning marcus in order to have mikko no1 driver would be inadequate in their thirst for wins. so, you start to work on mikko's car a bit better, lower marcus' car a little too much, but just enough to show that mikko is getting better, not that marcus is getting worse. little by little, throughout the year, mikko will chalenge marcus more and more and might even win another one or two. so that by september/october and marcus is knocking at the lawyers' door for another contract, he will be offered a 1/2 year contract with little raise and hirvonen will little by little become number one driver. i know that most of you think motorsports and their teams are fair between their drivers but that's not the case and it will not be the case with ford/marcus/mikko either. little by little mikko will get the better treatment and will become number one driver.

[Magnus]

FrankenSchwinn: it was some time since I so completely disagreed with a post as much as I do with yours! That was I thought at first anyway.

I agree with you that Mikko probably will be no. one next year, and that Marcus is at a point in his career where he is about to head downwards. but still: Marcus is one of the greatest rallydrivers ever, and Wilson is very glad to have him. Of course there will be no fuzz with the cars: it is impossible since the set up is decided by the drivers... if you know anything about rallycars and the engineering part, it is not too challenging to your mind to understand when things are not properly set up in your car.
Another thing: Bosse, I am sure, will not humiliate himself in anyway to get another drive.

Mikko is getting better and better, Bosse ought to go worse, due to his age. So if we se Mikko getting the better half more and more throughout the season it comes down to gaining experience on one side, and coming to age on the other, and nothing else.

As I have said before in this forum, Bosse will be remebered for being the only one able to keep up with Loeb. Not always, but often. That is a great achievement in itself.

What is fair? Economics... So your first priority as a team-boss is to supply your drivers with the best cars they can possibly get. It has nothing to do with fairness. The wallet talks, as always!

Last: you do not promote your new no. one driver by reducing the speed of your old one. So what do you do? You make shure that you have a no one driver from the start! Mikko has the qualities needed. He wont be helped at all by someone tampering with someone elses hard wear, that´s pure nonsence!

IMHO

[A.F.F.]

It's the law of rally, there always comes some one faster, sooner or later
The good thing is that it was Mikko

It's the lesson from Jedis. There's always a bigger fish

[bowler]

aff, you sorta hit the balls with your foot, but i would venture in thinking that mikko was put there. think about it, marcus' contract is up this year and he costs a lot of money. malcolm does not want to say no to the guy, nor does he want to show ford that not resigning marcus in order to have mikko no1 driver would be inadequate in their thirst for wins. so, you start to work on mikko's car a bit better, lower marcus' car a little too much, but just enough to show that mikko is getting better, not that marcus is getting worse. little by little, throughout the year, mikko will chalenge marcus more and more and might even win another one or two. so that by september/october and marcus is knocking at the lawyers' door for another contract, he will be offered a 1/2 year contract with little raise and hirvonen will little by little become number one driver. i know that most of you think motorsports and their teams are fair between their drivers but that's not the case and it will not be the case with ford/marcus/mikko either. little by little mikko will get the better treatment and will become number one driver.

Ah, the conspiracy theory!!

Interesting view, but a load of rubbish.

Marcus has so much more experience than Mikko, and that has a huge value.

There was a time when Marcus had little experience, and he fought his way to where he is now, as will Mikko.

Ford will be very happy to have a driver coming up behind Marcus, but they will be much happier to have Marcus.

[OTA]

I think that Miko won it fair and square. Marcus was indeed quite frustated about not being able to take any time on Miko in day 2. When he was asked in Eurosport why could't he catch Miko, he answer quite frustated that he couldn't. Then the jounalist asked for a reason and he said the reason was that he just couldn't.

Cheers
David

[FrankenSchwinn]

yeah, bowler and maganus, i serve the purpose of disagreeing with here on this forum. but do NOT put words in my posts. i never said that marcus was not appreciated or praised by M-Sport. i think that malcolm has the same type of respect for marcus that frequelin has for sainz, that is to say an admiration of the guy's skills etc.. what i am saying is that there is a business to run, these "conspiracy" crap things always come up when it's citroen or peugeot and i am starting to think that something is going to change in the next 18months at ford. oh and about marcus and his age, i'll quote indiana jones "it's not the years, it's the mileage"

[cyd]

If Mikko didn't win outright because of his own speed/ability, I really don't want to watch rallies anymore.

[jso1985]

Mikko kicked everyone's butt(Marcus included) on stage 1, if after it he had some "help" from Malcom Wilson,I don't think it matters much, He could have beat Marcus again on more stages.

[SanjayKumar]

We're getting closer to Mikko's first championship title!!! I think he'll get two or more victories this year and next year he'll be Champion!


Congratulations Mikko!!!