Hyundai WRT

[AnttiL]

I guess conceivably Rovanperä could win this drive and then turn it down if he gets a better offer elsewhere. E.g. M-Sport's rumoured BRC/WRC2/WRC testing.

Could Rovanperä do BRC also with Hyundai? He can take part in only three WRC events next year before he turns 18 in October. I understood that Hyundai's incentive was to have the winner contesting strongly on WRC2 next year. Other than that, the WRC testing option, just like at M-Sport, would be a great benefit at Hyundai compared to Skoda for instance.

[jparker]

better start now than later to write it correctly: Rovanperä

Just out of curiosity, why Fins demand their names spelled in their own alfabet? It's common to write foreign names in English differently than original language.

[AnttiL]

Just out of curiosity, why Fins demand their names spelled in their own alfabet? It's common to write foreign names in English differently than original language.

Hyundai's tweet had "Rovenpera", which is incorrect even with the umlauts omitted. "Rovanpera" is fine with me. I mean, I don't bother with the accents on French names either, I'll never get them correctly.

I remember in old foreign skiing tv broadcasts the system didn't have 'ä' so it was turned into 'ae' and Väätäinen became Vaeaetaeinen

Also my wife laughed at Østberg being turned into Ostberg on TV, because it changes the meaning of the name from 'east mountain' to 'cheese mountain'.

[Hartusvuori]

Just out of curiosity, why Fins demand their names spelled in their own alfabet? It's common to write foreign names in English differently than original language.

It's Finns.

[jparker]

It's Finns.

You got me here

[racerx1979]

How do you know this?

A source from within and that's all I'm going to say. The same source that told me Toyota wants Tanak very much, but they do not know if Malcom will let him go. Suninen is next in line after Tanak and Ogier no chance in hell is coming to Toyota. Apparently he and Tommi did not get along. Ogier was too arrogant during the test and made a few comments that did not sit well with Tommi and the team..

By the way this really isn't nothing new. There were a few articles from the press with similar storie.

[EstWRC]

How can he hold him up? Tänak is free agent after this season

[AnttiL]

A source from within and that's all I'm going to say. The same source that told me Toyota wants Tanak very much, but they do not know if Malcom will let him go. Suninen is next in line after Tanak and Ogier no chance in hell is coming to Toyota. Apparently he and Tommi did not get along. Ogier was too arrogant during the test and made a few comments that did not sit well with Tommi and the team..

What about Mikkelsen, I thought Toyota would like to get him if not Tänak? As much as I like Suninen, wouldn't having him and Lappi be a bit too much of inexperienced drivers for one team?

[racerx1979]

What I got from our discussion was that Tanak wants an increase in salary (this was not said outright, but it's what I took from our convo) and this was before his win in Germany. What I took from this was that Ott will stay with M-Sport if they pay him more than what Toyota will offer. This is when I asked "does Toyota have the money for an driver with Tanak's experience?" and the response was "they have a very big budget for WRC. He also mentioned that Tanak and Suninen would fit really well with the team. Mikkelsen's name never came up. Only guys mentioned were Ogier, Tanak and Suninen. Apparently Suninen is the hardest working driver at the moment. He has been doing drives with several different coaches and did so before Finland as well. Was told he is very driven to succeed and willing to learn and Toyota really likes that about him.

And to answer EstWRC I had no idea Tanak was a free agent and this was also not brought up.

And to add to this I was told Tommi is really fond of Juho. I guess Juho was there from the start and Tommi has a solid relationship with him and believes he can do a lot better and needs more time doing WRC events. Everyone on the team is hoping he does well for the sake of his future. I guess he is the "nice guy" everyone likes and has a great personality even though he does not come off that way in his interviews.

He would be the Sordo of Toyota if he can keep the same pace as the last two events.

[sonnybobiche]

they have a very big budget for WRC.

Any insight as to why they seem to be losing a lot of their people? E.g. Lehtinen, Simon Carrier, before Finland it looked like Tom Fowler was leaving, etc. I would assume that if they were losing people it would be because they didn't have the budget to retain them. Hard to understand well-paid employees leaving a team with so much promise for the future.