[WRC] News & rumours (part IV) 2016

[AL14]

it was A-Style, another Italian rally team but they broke up

lets hope BRC won't install Kubica LPG for Monte

A-Style was last year till Argentina. I meant I knew he was with M-Sport this year at Monte. But it seems he has chosen BRC.
Let's see if it is just a one off. My bet is that he will do more rounds. He is too much committed with WRC and it's pretty clear he doesn't want to leave.

[focus206]

All right, "does not belong" are maybe too harsh words but really, his only effort worth mentioning was Tour de Corse, and that was achieved on one stage where the result was anything but what we are used to seeing.

Even Mads drove well the entire rally to achieve his 2nd place in Mexico and many other good positions.

Tänak and Kubica deserve to be there on pure pace although I understand that they are debatable.

Evans has had slow results AND crashes so he can't even cut it as a safe driver.

He is for me the least deserving of last year's crop of drivers, and it is fully understandable that he is the only one who is half dropped.

The cover is comical because it looks like Msport just dropped Ogier's greatest challenger (which is hilarious).

Hmm crashes? I don't recall Evans doing many mistakes in 2015, he had quite some reliability issues at the beginning of the season, often in the very early stages. I also don't agree about pace alone, for example I see Evans and Tanak complementary on the same level (slower-more consistent / faster-more mistake prone)...
I really don't see how he is least deserving when he finished 1 point behind Neuville and ahead of Sordo, Paddon (1 round less, to be fair), Tanak, Kubica... how is it possible if he was so slow and accident-prone as you say?
But you're right about the cover, you know how much tabloids make things bigger...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Any know when the 2016 WRC team liveries will be revealed ?

[Simmi]

Evans will do 7 rounds with Ford Fiesta WRC http://www.autonews-magazine.com/blog/?p=44240

I'm hoping this is true but it's the only place I've seen this reported. I'd assumed they had got their information from the Motorsport News interview - but in that Elfyn states he doesn't know his programme.

14 rounds would be a great bounce-back season, even if he has to drop down to WRC2 at half the events. So let's see if it happens.

[markf8691]

I do not agree. Will he be a champion? No. Does he belong in the series? Yes, still. If he doesn't belong, so does not Tanak, Kubica, Ostberg after 10 years in WRCs and others. I'm glad he got at least a program for next year, I would have given another chance to him and Tanak in the "works" M-Sport Fiestas for this year, but Malcolm musy have had his reasons. I honestly didn't expect much more from them in 2015 in semi-private Fiestas.

PS: I'm not British, not know him personally and not a die-hard fan

I take it Ford are just supplying technical support?

[itix]

Hmm crashes? I don't recall Evans doing many mistakes in 2015, he had quite some reliability issues at the beginning of the season, often in the very early stages. I also don't agree about pace alone, for example I see Evans and Tanak complementary on the same level (slower-more consistent / faster-more mistake prone)...
I really don't see how he is least deserving when he finished 1 point behind Neuville and ahead of Sordo, Paddon (1 round less, to be fair), Tanak, Kubica... how is it possible if he was so slow and accident-prone as you say?
But you're right about the cover, you know how much tabloids make things bigger...

I remember Monte, Portugal, Finland, Australia, Spain and I think there were more times when he hit rocks and stuff and caused punctures. There was the famous Evans fix with the spanner and the the hose clamps also... Don't remember which rally that was.

Correct me if I'm wrong (very likely) but I think he crashed or had incidents quite a lot also. Maybe not compared to Tänak and Kubica but... Still a lot.

[wia5958]

Believe the other event was sweden. Think he got caught in snow bank for a few minutes

[Simmi]

I guess there's going off and then there's really going off. Elfyn wasn't exactly destroying cars. Not a lot of high profile accidents. Don't think he did anything in Australia apart from a high speed spin at one point?

Not that it really matters. Even as a Brit I couldn't justify saying Elfyn categorically deserved a top drive. Glad he and Ott are still in the WRC mix - but I think it's fair enough that M-Sport moved on from them.

What stood out to me in the Motorsport News article was Elfyn talking about his personality and effectively saying he's going to be a lot more aggressive and hard-nosed this year in his approach. He feels he's been misunderstood during his time in the WRC - maybe as a bit of a soft touch.

[bluuford]

I remember Monte, Portugal, Finland, Australia, Spain and I think there were more times when he hit rocks and stuff and caused punctures. There was the famous Evans fix with the spanner and the the hose clamps also... Don't remember which rally that was.
.

I think it was Finland, he crashed heavily into a huge boulder, but car somehow survived it and he managed to fix it temporarily.
In Monte he also made some kind of strange fix that hepled him to reach service and collect a few points.
In Sweden he had an off into the snowbank in rather slow junction, only damage was 2 minutes loss, which is huge in Sweden.
In Portugal , I think it was the place where he managed to crash twice in one rally.
In Poland he had little off and later retired with technical problem
In Australia he had a huge spin in sixt gear. Just a little cosmetical damage and +20 seconds was the result.
In Spain, he had rather simple off, cutting too much and going strait into the ditch.

So, he had a few crashes, three of them caused Rally 2, one caused him huge time loss (Finland) and one caused major time loss (Sweden).

Tänak had two calssical crashes, Spain and Monte (There he managed to continue).
Then he had two very unlucky moments GB and Argentina where he managed to hit small stones and broke suspension. and this strange crash in Mexico where he hit depression that broke steering and created the most viewed videos in 2015 WRC

So, I would say that their season was rather similar, only difference was that Ott had mostly more speed.

[wia5958]

Did he not damage the rear suspension in argentina aswell if i remember correctly? But managed to limp home for third