Andreas Mikkelsen

[mknight]

what were the reasons he was behind Lefebvre then when he was actually faster?

https://www.ewrc-results.com/results...2017/?s=139528
https://www.ewrc-results.com/leg/364...nd-2017/?leg=2
https://www.ewrc-results.com/leg/364...nd-2017/?leg=3

Leg 1, 1:30 ish lost due to damaged suspension with his off. (note time difference is 1:10)
Leg 2, 2 off-road drives, 10-20s in total. (time difference 2.8s)
Leg 3, 20s off in "Tanak's corner" (time difference 17s)
All these are clearly documented and all are driver mistakes. So in the end Mikkelsen is slower, but to say he is "clearly behind" Lefevbre on speed does not really tell the whole story.

If you want Lappi vs Hanninen in Portugal since I used it for comparison:
Leg 1, Damaged Intercooler for Lappi, faster before
Leg, 2, Lappi faster until spin and damage in last stage

[EstWRC]

ah i see, but these are his own mistakes and no one else to blame that he lost this time?


anyway this is my last post regarding this topic...i have nothing against him and i was one of the guys here in the beginning of the year who kept yelling here that how come he doesnt have a seat and swap him with Lefebvre. Now they did that in sardinia and i was so sure he would do much better than Lefebvre even with minimal testing but for me these 2 outings have been rather disappointing.

i wish him all the best and he definitely still deserves a seat in the series.

[dimviii]

we have to remember that this performance was with fresh homologated parts to suit his driving.Really not good.

[mknight]

we have to remember that this performance was with fresh homologated parts to suit his driving.Really not good.

That were never tested on wet. Considering Citroen "didn't have good setup" for Monte and Sweden after testing for most of the year before sets things to perspective.

EDIT: Also note where Breen was (a lot due to start position on Saturday, Sunday, but Mikkelsen was starting right behind him). Compare that to Breen vs Lefevbre on the other rallies.

[dimviii]

That were never tested on wet. Considering Citroen "didn't have good setup" for Monte and Sweden after testing for most of the year before sets things to perspective.

EDIT: Also note where Breen was (a lot due to start position on Saturday, Sunday, but Mikkelsen was starting right behind him). Compare that to Breen vs Lefevbre on the other rallies.

there were dry stages as well.

[AnttiL]

ATM with the info available (see first part above), I see the options as relatively open for all 3 "free" top drivers (Ogier, Tanak, Mikkelsen). (Technically Lavala is also free)
Ogier is probably most limited in his choices cause Hyundai prbly can't afford/doesn't want him with Neuville as n1, for Toyota it might create issues if they want to keep Latvala and he might hesitate to go to Citroen due to past issues and recent C3 performance.

From manu side we have:

M-Sport - likely to loose Ogier and have 1-2 free seats if Ford doesn't come, unlikely to go full "paydrivers" (aka. 2005), when it's only the 2nd year of this car, would want at least 1 very good driver.
Toyota - very likely to drop Hanninen and would want a chance for manu title so need one that can secure good results on most events
Citroen - 2 drivers with limited experience/unsure performance (Lefevbre especially), Meeke with unstable results. Car that needs development with input from other drivers than the 3 that developed it so far. (doesn't matter if they give right feedback if engineers don't trust their experience, none of the 3 have any experience with other cars from last 4 years)
Hyundai - prbly not 100% satisfied with Sordo and Paddon, after all the point gap from Neuville is huge relative to point gap Ogier vs Tanak and they are not leading manu champ, even with probably the fastest car atm. Trying to help Paddon improve his tarmac pace, is an indicator that he is still wanted, but then they also expect that the tarmac speed really improves.

The 2018 Teams thread covers this pretty well. Hyundai has contracts for all three drivers for 2018, don't see a reason why they would start making changes. Citroen has also contracts for Meeke, Breen and Lefebvre. Matton said in an interview that they can hire one guy more (could be Ogier or Mikkelsen). No one else has contracts that we know of. There's rumors of Tänak going to Toyota and that he would have a contract with M-Sport for 2018 and Toyota would have to pay penalty of that but it's just a rumor. It's been said that Lappi is a long time investment for Toyota so he's probably continuing there.

[jparker]

I think Mikkelsen was hired to help Citroen solve some of their problems. Driving for VW last year, and taking part of wrc17 development, made him very desirable choice for that job.
Because of this his main goal with Citroen has nothing to do with how fast he is.
As mentioned alreagy, he had proven how fast he is in R5.
Also, when Citroen asked him to catch Evans at PS in Poland, he almost did so, posting second fastest time, and discarding the efforts of some title contenders.

[mmm]

You don't know much about Mikkelsen do you? Look up 2009, not an experience i want to go through again.

I wrote my comment in a hurry and should have been more articulate.
I am not talking about the kind of hardships you are refering to. What I am refering to is contracts - he got them real good and real early. He has been in a very comfortable position for years (no worries of getting dropped, superior car, well paid, no lead driver pressure) and in my mind, that has not been good for his development.

[er88]

we have to remember that this performance was with fresh homologated parts to suit his driving.Really not good.

Well said mate. I still rate him highly, but his performances in Italy and Poland were for me, quite shocking. Especially when you consider the new parts he had on his car in Poland. Since when was Lefebvre a benchmark for anyone? The slowest wrc driver this year....

Mikkelsen's results probably would have been very, very similar overall had he been driving an R5 Skoda in Sardinia and Poland instead. Which obviously doesn't reflect well on Citroen or Andreas whatsoever...

[Marcco]

Well said mate. I still rate him highly, but his performances in Italy and Poland were for me, quite shocking. Especially when you consider the new parts he had on his car in Poland. Since when was Lefebvre a benchmark for anyone? The slowest wrc driver this year....

Mikkelsen's results probably would have been very, very similar overall had he been driving an R5 Skoda in Sardinia and Poland instead. Which obviously doesn't reflect well on Citroen or Andreas whatsoever...

Com'on guys! The new homologated parts is not "to suit his driving" - it is to solve C3 "handling issues" or as they say "to make car more versatile". Which means that after changed part you have a lot of development work, so don't expect instant results.
I think Andreas was hired to get some different input (from someone who has been involved in polo development!) and do some development work. That's why, I think, he had only objective - to finish the rally and he did just that.
For me, this quote sums it all up:
Andreas, after powerstage in Poland (he was 3rd): "We gave it a go. This stage is much more enjoyable with better grip. A clean stage and I'm happy to end the rally like this."