Quote Originally Posted by vkangas View Post
For me it seems pretty obvious (based on public info) that the performance of TMG's WRC Yaris has been carefully evaluated and Toyota is not happy with it. It might be ok but their target in the future is of course to beat VW.

As Mirek pointed out TMG's recent projects have not been huge successes so perfectly right thing to do is to try something completely new. I have no contacts to TMG but for me it seems that it's a little bit old-school R&D unit full of middle-aged men (after F1 project was ended). Why else would they say publicly that now they want to buid a young team and attract new talents etc.

The one thing I fear is that Tommi sets up Toyota's operations to Finland even if it's not an optimal solution. The whole thing is perfectly doable from Finland but it's really a serious effort (+money) that is needed to attract the best engineering talents from other WRC (+F1 etc) teams from Central Europe.
Back in the days I interviewed Flavio Briattore, also on his view of Toyota not winning in F1. He laughed a bit and said that they gathered way to much data, and prioritized all data equal. This was at the time i believe Renault F1 was experimenting with weight distribution on the Santa Pod dragstrip etc. TMG is a very impressive outfit, but they have less success to show for than the facilities conveys. In every corporation it is important to have a very clear picture of where You are going, who is in charge of what, etc (communication I think its called), and the bigger the organisation the more important the clarity is.
In VW this works very well with a triangle of Jost Capito, FX and Ogier.
I hope Tommi Mäkinen can lead the way in the same manor.

One thing that will be beneficial is that he "grew up" in a very family-like team with Mitsubishi.
One thing that can be a challenge is Tommi being Finnish, and Finnish people doesn't have the reputation to be to outspoken, and especially when there is problems/challenges they often tend to step back in silent contemplation in stead of team communication.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Tommi, I even got to passanger him in the Evo 8 I had brought to Finland (which was a bit special since he was long in to his Subaru contract), and he is more outspoken than the typical Finn, but leading a big corporation with a Toyota WRC effort will be, will be a challenge.

I think he will do very well. The question will be if he can get the right drivers. A driver that would be very good for him is actually Neuville, all be it that he is in a slump. Neuville cand drive very effectively (Nose End First) when he has the right set up, is in the right mood, is not stressed etc, but he seems to have no clue how to get back in "the zone." Tommi could fix that. But that would mean that Neuville has to be open for input, and humble.