Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
3rd in WRC 3 years in a row. Beating Ogier in same car in straight fight in Portugal and Australia. 2 rally wins in 2016 (Ogier 6, MIkkelsen and Meeke 2, others 1), without start position advantage. Clearly better than his teammate Latvala in 2016 (You know, the guy that is leading WRC atm.). Won the last rally of the season by his speed only (not like Duval back in a day).

Instead you have at least 4 drivers which are clearly worse than him driving "factory" seats:
Hanninen (has always been inconsistent, with 6th place as best ever result, 2 years away)
Breen (not (yet) there, even though he's improving a lot)
Lefebvre (not (yet) there)
Evans (fast on tarmac, too bad most events are gravel)

Btw. Mikkelsen is 10 years younger than Meek, 2 years younger than Paddon, 1/2 year younger than Evans and 1/2 year older than Breen.

Most people also noticed how the team bosses of both Citroen and Toyota went public in October/November complaining about the lack of good available drivers. Then VW pulled out and they didn't hire a guy that is clearly top 5 in the world atm.

Sure you can argue about contracts, but where there is will there is a way.
Must have seen this same post about 20 times.

He's absolute class but is he worth either a courtroom battle or the expense of adding an additional car out of thin air? Clearly team bosses didn't think so. The only place I think he had a shot is Dmack. But who knows how those negotiations went. Maybe he wanted paying. There are also things called loyalty and honour when it comes to contracts, agreements and relationships.