Silly Season 2019

[RS]

BTW, a friend of mine has suggested M-Sport may withdraw from the Manu's WRC so they dont have to do the long-haul events. They could then just run cars for 'their' driver's on European rounds...

Can new parts be homologated if a team is not registered for the manufacturers championships?

[wrc2017]

Meeke to Toyota... if true...it's even a win for him before he starts a single rally, and a big 2 fingers to Citroen management. Makinen obviously sees something in him. Look at all the options Tommi had, and Meeke came out on top... thats an endorsement and a vote of confidence if ever i saw it. Maybe Makinen sees a hint of his ex rival McRae in Meeke.. and is just intrigued. Im just willing Meeke to beat Citroens on a regular basis... and getting well paid doing it... revenge will be sweet. Then he can leave WRC on his terms.

[wia5958]

Meeke to Toyota... if true...it's even a win for him before he starts a single rally, and a big 2 fingers to Citroen management. Makinen obviously sees something in him. Look at all the options Tommi had, and Meeke came out on top... thats an endorsement and a vote of confidence if ever i saw it. Maybe Makinen sees a hint of his ex rival McRae in Meeke.. and is just intrigued. Im just willing Meeke to beat Citroens on a regular basis... and getting well paid doing it... revenge will be sweet. Then he can leave WRC on his terms.

Possibly. Id say he sees more the hype meeke brings to the stages. His on the limit style attracts fans which attracts them to their brand. Yes he may win rallys and yes he will bin it. But overall id say 70% is pr 30% actually to have him in the car

[mknight]

While out and about on WRGB I heard a few bits and pieces regarding a few of the topics, I don't know any of them to be fact, but here they are none the less.
Lappi fell out personally with Makinen over him leaving a test early for personal reasons, which was not authorised. Apparently at one stage end on WRGB he was handed a cap, looked at it and it had TMR logo on, so he threw it away.

If some falling-out is true then I guess he left on mutual agreement.

At that point Makinen had these options (random order):
-Paddon (no top speed on tarmac, not good results this year)
-Breen (still no win, seems inconsistent)
-Sordo (no speed on some rallies (Finland, GB), maybe doesn't want full season)
-Meeke
-Evans (not a real option)
-some young guy, but both Huttunen and Rovanpera are under contract

Not really surprising he picked Meeke. Would say that Breen was probably the only real competition.

Btw. lets recall what happened at Citroen:
Citroen kicked Meeke as number 1 and got Ogier instead. Anyone really thinks that's a bad switch?

[wrc2017]

Citroen kicked Meeke as number 1 and got Ogier instead. Anyone really thinks that's a bad switch?

Did they also not kick matton, 2nd in command, lead engineers ...and re-homologate fundamental things that should has been right from the start.

Smells of Citroens last throw of the dice... promises, promises promises to land Ogier. It could be the biggest mistake of his career... maybe not. but anything less than WRC driver titles will be a failure for Citroen and Ogier.

[GravelBen]

-Paddon (no top speed on tarmac, not good results this year)

1x 3rd, 2x 4th, 1x 5th, 1x 7th and 1x crashed out while leading.

I'd say those results aren't bad at all for a guy who has only been given half the seat time considering how tight the competition has been.

Seemed like he had more speed to offer in Finland too if the team hadn't needed him to play it safe for points with Neuville and Mikkelsen out of contention.

[Toyoda]

1x 3rd, 2x 4th, 1x 5th, 1x 7th and 1x crashed out while leading.

I'd say those results aren't bad at all for a guy who has only been given half the seat time considering how tight the competition has been.

Seemed like he had more speed to offer in Finland too if the team hadn't needed him to play it safe for points with Neuville and Mikkelsen out of contention.

Adding to that, in GB a 5th may have been on the cards without team orders (although that I guess is hypothetical)

[denkimi]

Btw. Ogier on his first full season (2009) was told to learn and take it easy and was basically the slowest factory WRC in all rallies. (He even had lass points than Matt Wilson overall).

13 stage wins and a 2nd place. Wilson has not even come close to that in his entire career.

Ogier was prone to accidents and faults in his first full season, but he was not slow like wilson.

[OnlyRally]

Meeke to Toyota... if true...it's even a win for him before he starts a single rally, and a big 2 fingers to Citroen management. Makinen obviously sees something in him. Look at all the options Tommi had, and Meeke came out on top... thats an endorsement and a vote of confidence if ever i saw it. Maybe Makinen sees a hint of his ex rival McRae in Meeke.. and is just intrigued. Im just willing Meeke to beat Citroens on a regular basis... and getting well paid doing it... revenge will be sweet. Then he can leave WRC on his terms.

You think, Meeke will beat Ogier on a regular basis? Citroen is a very good and fast car. Loeb just tested it a littlebit, made some small changes an were winning stages in MEX. Still don't understand why the other Citroen drivers were so bad at car development.

[doubled1978]

1x 3rd, 2x 4th, 1x 5th, 1x 7th and 1x crashed out while leading.

I'd say those results aren't bad at all for a guy who has only been given half the seat time considering how tight the competition has been.

Seemed like he had more speed to offer in Finland too if the team hadn't needed him to play it safe for points with Neuville and Mikkelsen out of contention.

To me Paddon looked like he was driving for a finish in WRGB, same as in Turkey. He never looked like he was pushing like the others anywhere I saw him, or like he has done in the past. I would assume that after the crash he had while leading the team may have told him he needs to be in a position to score point for the team should one of the other two have an issue.