[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[EstWRC]

as an estonian couldnt be more happy, christmas came early for me this year!!! cant wait for the season to begin now. wuuuuuhuuuuu

[Doon]

I know M-Sport only take pay drivers, and although I think Evans and Tanak both have potential, this line up is the weakest for a 'manufacturer team' since Gardemeister / Kresta at Ford in 2005, or Gardemeister / PG Andersson at Susuki in 2008 (please correct me if there have been worse line-ups)

M-sport will go from a team that can't win a rally, to a team that can't get on the podium. Evans may improve and get into the top 4 or 5 when a few of the others have problems, and Tanak.......he'll crash a lot.

[Sch17]

Just watched Rally Finland 2004. In 2004 Marrko Matin was showing good speed with M-Sport and im sure next year Ott will be very fast too. Wrc really needs more competition!

[bluuford]

In last 2 years Ott has taken part in 20 rally events, he has had 3 crashes. We will see in 2015. I think they will surprise us. Elfin has done it in 2014. And I like the lineup. It is something new!

[Kalm]

I know M-Sport only take pay drivers.
M-sport will go from a team that can't win a rally, to a team that can't get on the podium.

Tanak and a "pay driver" dont go together, and regarding to getting to podium i think M-Sport has to be more worried about their car being competitive next year hearing all the upgrates others are planning, than their drivers.

[Iron]

I think it's really good line-up, the both have strong potential.

I dont think M-Sport had the possibility to make a better choice?

M-Sport has a really important role in rallying, they always gave the chance to young drivers and this is really good !

[focus206]

I think this is the right choice for M-Sport, Elfyn has done a good job this year and Tanak deserves another chance in my opinion

[Jack4688`]

They really needed someone with the experience of Hirvonen for another year for Evans to learn from. I don't think this is a particularly strong lineup, but what else could they do? Trouble is there isn't the same depth of talent in the WRC as there was 10-20 years ago. Other than the VW boys there's Meeke who seems to be on the fringes of that level but not quite there and no one else on par in terms of proven speed and experience... and the ability to stay on the road.

Surprises are of course possible but there aren't really that many that happen in the WRC these days. I wouldn't be expecting any big results or podiums gained on merit from the M-Sport drivers, in 2015 at least.

[skarderud]

They really needed someone with the experience of Hirvonen for another year for Evans to learn from. I don't think this is a particularly strong lineup, but what else could they do? Trouble is there isn't the same depth of talent in the WRC as there was 10-20 years ago. Other than the VW boys there's Meeke who seems to be on the fringes of that level but not quite there and no one else on par in terms of proven speed and experience... and the ability to stay on the road.

Surprises are of course possible but there aren't really that many that happen in the WRC these days. I wouldn't be expecting any big results or podiums gained on merit from the M-Sport drivers, in 2015 at least.

I think the talents is around, but when its so expensive to get experienced enough to be seen by the teams most of them never even get seen.
And bad publicity of wrc the last 10yrs, one seb to win all the time, more focus on money into the teams than raw talent, bad rules, to expensive, only on paytv, bad internetsolutions, wrong focus by the stakeholders, to few cars awailable, and so on....

[Jack4688`]

I agree with most points but Sebastian Loeb's dominance was no one's 'fault' as such. Correct it made people lose interest during that period - me included - but you can't really mitigate for things like that in sport.

The talent would come through if more manufacturers were involved and willing to support young drivers from a junior level, but then there's barely any reason for more manufacturers to get involved in a championship that is so poorly promoted.