Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
Come on, Meeke has been around since 2004 or so. He has done a lot of WRC events already in JWRC. You can't take him for a newcomer ten years later. Mikkelsen has had a lot of WRC starts already before he went to IRC and right now he finished the 4th post-IRC season (the first one was with VW Fabia S2000). Neuville did JERC in the same time as IRC (plus some single rounds of WRC in previous years) and now he finished his 4th complete WRC season.

Together these guys spent more then 15 seasons in WRC and they managed to win how many times? Each one of them once? They are good and they definitely benefited from being part of the IRC show in its strongest days but still they didn't come as something groundbraking to the WRC. Still we talk about times when they had to fight with those like Hänninen, Kopecký, Loix, Rossetti etc. but all of those guys left ERC...
My point is that I don't see a great body of evidence to suggest WRC2 is that much better for someone looking to get a WRC drive. Sure it is important to learn the events but how many WRC event winners has SWRC or WRC2 produced?

Regarding Meeke, not sure how relevant some JWRC events 11 years ago are to WRC now?

Fair point on Mikelssen and his year in the VW Fabia.

Neuville's WRC experience was quite minimal and he was already very good in only his second year in a World Rally Car.