Regarding driver development, there seems to be an obsession these days to sign up the next big thing before they are barely out of nappies and in some cases I think the process is rushed.. perhaps not with Rovanpera as he actually started driving so young that he is quite experienced already.

Lefebvre is my favourite current example who showed a lot of promise in 2wd but then the following year was driving a World Rally Car in WRC and it hasn’t worked.

Mikelssen is a good example of someone who had to take a step back in order to take two steps forward.

Even ‘my’ Skoda seem to have been a bit guilty in this with Jusso Nordgren who they seem to have signed on the back of one good performance on his home event (or perhaps I missed something, can someone tell us more about him?)

WRC2 is on a really good level these days with the works Skoda and M-Sport teams there and of course they are necessary for drivers in order to learn the WRC events but there are a few problems with it as a championship..

1) It is very hard to compete if you are not in one of those works teams
2) Events are long and can often be decided by technical problems/punctures and gaps can end up very large so drivers sometimes don’t get much experience in close battles
3) Lack of tarmac

A good career plan to me could be something like ERC 2wd > ERC R5 > WRC2 > WRC.