[WRC] News & rumours (part IV) 2016

[Karukera]

I see what you mean but you simply can't separate the two notions mental and driving skills. They are interdependent.

[dodge33cymru]

Latvala's inability to go up the final rung of the ladder could be mental, driving style or any combination of things.

As I see it though, his biggest problem is living in Seb-land his whole career, but he's still achieved a lot. He also has a far more flamboyant driving style, which is probably less suited to today's cars.

I give him all sorts of credit for being so open, so self-analytical and for trying to do something different. Whether it works or not, he's won plenty enough to be proud of, so what's he got to lose by focusing on something new?

[tommeke_B]

Which Latvala have you been watching? In my opinion/view on the stages, over the last couple of years, Latvala's driving style became much cleaner, often less sideways than Ogier.

[dodge33cymru]

Interesting, it might be something drilled in to my memory from a few years ago and I know it's cleaner than his first year with the VW, but I always seem to notice Latvala a lot more sideways than Ogier.

But that may be just because I look for it - I will have to look with a fresh pair of eyes next time

[AL14]

Which Latvala have you been watching? In my opinion/view on the stages, over the last couple of years, Latvala's driving style became much cleaner, often less sideways than Ogier.

It's not too much about sideways...I get what you mean and I think I've been too much synthetic. I agree with Karukera, we can't separate mental and driving skills, but we can put one of them ahead of the other, we can say that one is more important and the other will come afterwards....

I'll make you an example to explain me better: in what Latvala has improved more since his early years? In controlling his mind? No, I think the bigger improvement, amongst others, is his drive on asphalt. He was very far from top guys at the beginning and now he is very very close to a specialist and master like Ogier, sometimes even faster.
He put him under pressure in a lot of asphalt rallys and made him make mistakes like he did not do even on gravel (Germany and France 2014 are very good examples).

Now, how did he accomplished this? With his mental trainer? Doing Yoga? Nope! He himself said that he worked hard, looking on Loeb onboards, training himself and so on... That's what I meant. The mental improvement has followed his work on driving and not the contrary!

Now, what I want to say is this: Latvala is a very very emotional guy. I really like him for this, and for everything dodge33cymru said, I am a great fan of him, and I falled in love with rally thanks to him after playing wrc4 with my pc and asking myself who was that guy always second behing Loeb.
But I think he should not fight his emotional side, he should not try to calm himself down. That is his nature and he should try to take advantage from there.
An emotional guy is the worse when something goes wrong but is the best when everything goes well! That's why I said he should work on his driving much more than on his head.
If he makes that further step forward, that means to improve his feeling with the car, to have it under control, to be fast and more safe than he is, he could really achieve his goals. But all this is not something a psycologist can teach you, it's about driving, just like he did with his tarmac skills.

Hope now is more clear.

[stefanvv]

I think the mental side of what is meant here is exactly what Colin Clark speaks about - pressure. Pressure can be Your worst enemy forcing You to do mistakes, including ones against Your nature. So no matter how emotional he is, he must learn how to handle pressure and probably think little more before reacting emotionally.
As for driving I agree he has improved a lot, but in Monte he seem to lost something about this improvement sometimes, perhaps many times. May be this also had negative effect over his mental state...

[Simmi]

I'm not sure if the whole thing is being slightly over-analysed. Split second snap decisions during an intense moment.

What pressure is Latvala under now that he hasn't already been under for the last 3 years in a dominant winning car?

VW already have a sure-fire title winner in Ogier. For the last 3 years his points tally alone has been enough to guarantee VW the manufacturers title. I know that's an overly simplistic way of looking at things, but it's quite striking.

The only pressure is simply what Latvala is putting on himself. It even seems like he has a long-term deal with VW. So he's not even fighting for a drive next year. He's not consistent enough to rattle Ogier at all so he's the perfect team-mate in that set-up.

Or am I missing something? Was this going to be the year that Latvala, a guy who already had significantly more experience, was going to get better than Ogier?

In another era he and Hirvonen would have been multiple world champions but they came up against a brick wall.

[noel157]

, so self-analytical

For me that's his main problem. Just needs to drive, stop second guessing himself and worst of all, announcing plans about how he's is going to drive this season - (take it easy first half, attack 2nd half of season, or whatever he said). He drove himself off the road thinking about all this nonsense.
Just drive, don't think so much J-M.

[dimviii]

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Also included; Meeke won't appear on every Citroen round Citroen do, and @Craig_Breen has talked up the French marque after his Monte recce.

[GigiGalliNo1]

I can't be bothered buying the digital issue of the magazine for one story. What's the news? How many rounds will Meeke do?