[WRC] News & Rumours 2018

[Essaj]

for sure Rovanpera has potential.
But at current phase he has a long road yet to wrc
Asphalt pace has to improove a lot.
I want to see him to be fast and win and in other rallies,except Finland like gravel/stages.
Argentina was his first ''real'' outing for me and his pace was good,even Tidemand wasnt at full attack due to team orders as he said.

He is infact doing a tarmac event in less than 2 weeks, he did so aswell last year with a piece of shit car also know as Peugeot 206 R5 in Italy.
And Tidemand's words him saying he wasn't in "full attack" - Do you really believe him? To me it sounded like a bad excuse.

[dimviii]

He is infact doing a tarmac event in less than 2 weeks, he did so aswell last year with a piece of shit car also know as Peugeot 206 R5 in Italy.

this shit car was the champion car at Italy.From same team too.

And Tidemand's words him saying he wasn't in "full attack" - Do you really believe him? To me it sounded like a bad excuse.

to me it didnt sounded like a bad excuse.
Tidemand said that officially at day 2 last stage.
At 3rd day they started with the gap at 23,2 sec for Rovanpera.After 1st stage Tidemand took 13,3 sec at 16,4 km ,and the gap went to 9,9 sec with 2 more stages and 39 stage km to the end.
At next stage Rovanpera crashed...

[Essaj]

this shit car was the champion car at Italy.From same team too.

Well Andreucci is one of the only drivers to make T16 to work for them. Many others have struggled and been no where with it.

Tidemand said that officially at day 2 last stage.
At 3rd day they started with the gap at 23,2 sec for Rovanpera.After 1st stage Tidemand took 13,3 sec at 16,4 km ,and the gap went to 9,9 sec with 2 more stages and 39 stage km to the end.
At next stage Rovanpera crashed...

You can believe what you want but Argentina is now 3rd rally Kalle and Pontus have driven against each other.
In the first one, Kalle was debuting with R5 and only Kalle's puncture saved Pontus there. in Mexico Kalle was unlucky at the start with the rock in the compression but they were driving equal pace for the rest of the rally, okay propably both with a safe pace.
Argentina you can make what you want but IMO they were both pushing but Kalle's mistake ruined the fight but like lets say Latvala wouldnt have done, he admitted that it was purely his own mistake (which to me is a good sign)

Pontus is in stage of his career in which he needs to prove his dominance in WRC2 to have a any change to step up to WRC. Losing to Katsuta in Sweden (Pirelli vs Michelin, I know) and struggling against unexperienced 17yo teammate aint what he needs and quickly drops him out of the possible WRC seat.

Currently it seems that if Skoda gives a change for Kopecky to take the title he is the #1 contender for it.

[Mirek]

Currently it seems that if Skoda gives a change for Kopecky to take the title he is the #1 contender for it.

This is all in the hands of the team. If they send Tidemand to all asphalt events against Kopecký he may not win the title but if they send him to distant gravel events he will win the title easily and Kopecký could not do anything about it. In fact in most of the scenarios Tidemand has better chances even if they give Kopecký enough events. He is not in such a situation like in 2015 when he would likely win the title easily if he was given the chance.

[Essaj]

This is all in the hands of the team. If they send Tidemand to all asphalt events against Kopecký he may not win the title but if they send him to distant gravel events he will win the title easily and Kopecký could not do anything about it. In fact in most of the scenarios Tidemand has better chances even if they give Kopecký enough events. He is not in such a situation like in 2015 when he would likely win the title easily if he was given the chance.

I would think that Kopecky could drive something like Sardinia, Germany, Spain, Turkey and maybe Australia. Kalle is most likely going to drive Finland, Spain, Wales and maybe Germany and ofc Australia is possible but unlikely since 2 bad starts point wise already. Then Veiby and Nordgren will drive whatever, Who knows if Suninen might do a WRC2 round, we have hungry Huttunen who wants to prove his pace. Maybe Citroen starts to work and challenge for the wins, the VW is coming and with who?
That dosen't leave too many rallies for Tidemand to cruise for easy wins so lets see, it's for sure going to be interesting.

[dimviii]

Well Andreucci is one of the only drivers to make T16 to work for them. Many others have struggled and been no where with it.

he was at SAME team that have made this shit car worked.
Andreucci wasnt the only one faster from Rovanpera.Plenty Itallians too.At gravel too.

You can believe what you want .

of course you can believe that Rovanperas crash hasnt to do that at stage 1 Tidemand took 13 sec from 23 he had builded at 2 days,and was just an unlucky moment.

[Essaj]

he was at SAME team that have made this shit car worked.
Andreucci wasnt the only one faster from Rovanpera.Plenty Itallians too.At gravel too.
of course you can believe that Rovanperas crash hasnt to do that at stage 1 Tidemand took 13 sec from 23 he had builded at 2 days,and was just an unlucky moment.

No I ment that Andreucci is one of the only drivers who shows pace with T16, only other I know with a win with is Loeb, who would have guessed.
And on gravel Kalle was up there but struggled alot with the car, like Ucci does in gravel but still he would have taken 2nd place in San Marino if his Peugeot would have lasted the final liason before the finish line.
Could we maybe wait and see how he does in Germany with Skoda until we talk more about his tarmac pace.

And back to Argentina it's pretty clear that it was recce mistake in Kalle's crash. Kalle and EP both have rather similiar notes and Kalle's note to that right hander is a step "faster" than EP's.
Pontus was actually leading the rally until stage 11 so yeah.

[PLuto]

He is infact doing a tarmac event in less than 2 weeks, he did so aswell last year with a piece of shit car also know as Peugeot 206 R5 in Italy.
And Tidemand's words him saying he wasn't in "full attack" - Do you really believe him? To me it sounded like a bad excuse.

His performance in Italy last year was not so much impressive. Despite the car is not so bad there and still competitive (not only in hands of Andreucci).

[Mirek]

His performance in Italy last year was not so much impressive. Despite the car is not so bad there and still competitive (not only in hands of Andreucci).

What have You expected? He was 16 years old with zero Italian experience. Only a fool would expect him to challenge Andreucci. Shall I remind that Kopecký also did a season in Italy and didn't achieve much more despite having way more experience in that time?