M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[racerx1979]

I think I heard on All Live that Suninen would be doing Rally Deutschland on a WRC car.

Anyway, super disappointed in his performance this year, not even decent stage times. He has to learn, yes, but seems like a shadow of his explosive pace in 2017 Poland and Finland or the steady results of WRC2

There were weird rumors of Suninen doing Germany and also talks of Loeb for Citroen, but not sure of Breens and Khalid's schedule for Germany.

[Allez Andruet]

I think I heard on All Live that Suninen would be doing Rally Deutschland on a WRC car.

Anyway, super disappointed in his performance this year, not even decent stage times. He has to learn, yes, but seems like a shadow of his explosive pace in 2017 Poland and Finland or the steady results of WRC2

Yep, sure he has to learn and get the maximum mileage, but still... you just can't be the slowest of the WRCs (Al-Qassimi naturally exculded) all the time. It seems like he completely forgot how to drive a World Rally Car after Finland 2017. Especially if his program is in connection with M-Sport's chances to grab the Manu title. You would imagine that it'd make sense to score some points every now and then.

It's not the end of the world ofcourse, as the rallies which should suit him better are yet to come, but there's a valid reason to be worried nevertheless.

[Andre Oliveira]

I may start thinking that Pontus was better choice to M-Sport than Evans

[Tarmop]

Well, at the time one had driven the car, had podiums, a close win in Argentina and a win in Wales, other was WRC2 champion yes, but...
Needs to pick up his pace for sure, with most of the drivers available at the end of the season.

[EstWRC]

agreed about Suninen, i was just thinking the same past weekend. His first outings were great but where has the speed gone now?

We will see now if we come back to the european rounds which he knows better and should suit him better.

[Doon]

Any chance M-Sport could put DMACK tyres on Evans' car for the remaining gravel rounds. Not sure on the rules about nominating tyres, but he'd probably get a few decent results with a tyre advantage gamble.

[dimviii]

Ogier doesnt like it.

[N.O.T]

Ogier doesnt like it.

Thats what happens when you cry all the time... nobody respects you no matter how good you are.... not even your employer.

There is only one Seb in rallying...

[Tarmop]

Any chance M-Sport could put DMACK tyres on Evans' car for the remaining gravel rounds. Not sure on the rules about nominating tyres, but he'd probably get a few decent results with a tyre advantage gamble.

They could, if their deal with Michelin allows that.

[Watson]

Any chance M-Sport could put DMACK tyres on Evans' car for the remaining gravel rounds. Not sure on the rules about nominating tyres, but he'd probably get a few decent results with a tyre advantage gamble.

I doubt it would work. He was actually doing fine in Mexico until he crashed and Corsica was also okay considering he had to swap codrivers last minute.

I was pretty damn disappointed with him in Argentina but there might be a number of reasons for that.

Seb wasn't able to keep up with Neuville and Tanak who had similarly bad road positions on Friday, so I guess the Fiesta was not ideal for the roads there and/or the whole team couldn't find a good setup.

Maybe the crash in Mexico and Dan next to him in the car led him to be too careful.

Finally, yes maybe the feeling with the Michelins was vastly different to the DMacks of last year. However, Michelin surely supplies the best overall tyre so he best just gets used to it.

In the end he is there to collect points for the team, so results between 3rd and 6th are satisfactory, which he did achieve in the last two rallies. Sometimes staying out of trouble is the best way to go about business for a second driver.

Let's see how he gets on in the next couple of events. I'm not quite prepared to throw him under the bus yet.