Quote Originally Posted by electroliquid View Post
Max Novikov? Maybe Evgeny Novikov?
Bit OT, but in football, basketball and other team sports player need playing time, which he can't get in strongest league, that why going trough smaller ones, in rallying you get same seat time in any level, if you can stay on road.
Back to topic. What about Pierre-Louis Loubet - he went straight to WRC - if he has been done national, and then ERC, was he better? I don't know much about him, is he real talented guy?
Yes, of course, Evgeny, Max is his father Ok, so if we dont count team sports, we can talk lets say biathlon. There is also "first league" and lower leagues. And for competitors it is better to go step by step from lower championships. And for them is better to fight for top 5 in IBU Cup and be around 30rd position in big league. All, what I want to say is that rallying is not only to know the WRC stages and be from beginning there. You should learn lot of skills to be successful driver, not only driving the car, but also mentality, to know, how to fight for overall win, when everybody is focused on you, to fight for seconds etc. And it is better (and of course also cheaper) to learn it in lower championships than going directly to WRC.

With Pierre-Louis Loubet, it is very specific. He absolutely missed all regional/small events and started directly in WRC. First year with R3T, then immediatelly R5. As he was always in the best teams, there must be lot of backing behind him. Now he has three seasons in WRC behind him, last one with factory R5 car. He is not top WRC2 driver now, showed good speed on some stages and has potential to be faster/better. But until now nobody expected from him anything. Now he will need to grow up, start to make some results. And there is question if this so direct way to the WRC is the best one...