Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
3rd in WRC 3 years in a row. Beating Ogier in same car in straight fight in Portugal and Australia. 2 rally wins in 2016 (Ogier 6, MIkkelsen and Meeke 2, others 1), without start position advantage. Clearly better than his teammate Latvala in 2016 (You know, the guy that is leading WRC atm.). Won the last rally of the season by his speed only (not like Duval back in a day).

Instead you have at least 4 drivers which are clearly worse than him driving "factory" seats:
Hanninen (has always been inconsistent, with 6th place as best ever result, 2 years away)
Breen (not (yet) there, even though he's improving a lot)
Lefebvre (not (yet) there)
Evans (fast on tarmac, too bad most events are gravel)

Btw. Mikkelsen is 10 years younger than Meek, 2 years younger than Paddon, 1/2 year younger than Evans and 1/2 year older than Breen.

Most people also noticed how the team bosses of both Citroen and Toyota went public in October/November complaining about the lack of good available drivers. Then VW pulled out and they didn't hire a guy that is clearly top 5 in the world atm.

Sure you can argue about contracts, but where there is will there is a way.
There's no need argue with any of that. Mikkelsen had a fantastic 2016 during which he without a doubt outperformed Latvala. It's just vulgar and funny at the same time, how people (i.e. the fans) are demanding him to replace one of the contracted guys in (pick team) after just two rallies. Ofcourse he has a better resume than any of the guys you mentioned. It's not about that.

VW announced its withdrawal in November - it's somewhat surprising that 2/3 of the VW drivers have a full-time seat for 2017. What happened to Solberg and Atkinson in 2008? Or to Auriol, Kankkunen and Schwarz in 1995? That's just the way it goes and VW is the one to blame.

In a nutshell:
Does Mikkelsen deserve a full-time seat in WRC? Yes.
Should that happen at the cost of any of the current WRC guys (either young or old or somewhere in-between)? No.