Hyundai WRT

[Tarmop]

No, Mikkelsen is not there by his dads money, he lost most of it in the finacial crisis in 2008, and Mikkelsen was out of rallying. Veiby/Even managment startet basically because of Mikkelsen had a talent, but no money.
Of course he had showed something before, so Veiby was avare of him.



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He started driving in a WRC when he was 16, has since driven with all the generations and different makes, one of them has been the best car of its era and yet he has nothing to boast with. Neuville is far ahead. He is a good 3rd or even 2. driver, but this season he failed being both.

[mknight]

I think I'm more surprised than anything that Hyundai don't have a performance clause in his contract.

They can have, but "performance" and results can be defined quite differently.
He dropped due to car issues that were not his fault 4x times this year from 2x 1st, 1x 3rd and 1x 4th place. Specially the drop from 40s lead and almost certain win in Turkey due to mechanics missing some bolts should be easy to use in any arguments.

Similar stuff was happening to Sordo and Paddon on just about every other rally in 2017. So wouldn't be surprised if the people writing Mikkelsen's contract were very carefull in wording it.

[Norm75]

He first had a puncture, than hit the chicane. You could hear them talking about the puncture (Neuville asked Nicolas if they had 2 punctures) a few seconds before they arrive at that chicane.
And on Sunday, it was all or nothing, didn't loose it there.

He lost it with the mechanical faillure in Turkey.

I don't see how anyone can say a driver lost the wdc through one mechanical failure against three fuckups. Or one fuck up for that matter.
A mechanical failure a driver can not help, putting a car into a ditch is down to the driver.

[AnttiL]

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...e-preparations

Loeb cannot test before the weekend before Monte Carlo recce starts

[Allez Andruet]

https://www.autosport.com/wrc/news/1...e-preparations

Loeb cannot test before the weekend before Monte Carlo recce starts

That's one heck of a schedule he has for January...

[T16]

That's one heck of a schedule he has for January...

If he has a delay which looks likely to hinder his chances of victory on the Dakar, he'll be out of there like a shot.

[Duvel]

I think he did not fuck up untill he had problem in Turkey (wich we can not blame on Neuville).
If you look at results and pace the whole year Neuville was the only one always up there. In the beginning of the season al went easy to be top 3, end of season he had to push it to the limits to much to keep up whit top 3.

I personally feel the car started 2018 as the best, but in the end was third maybe even fourth fastest.
Whitout Turkey points lost third and fourth places in remaining rounds would have been enough for wdc.

I hope the team has done there work to improve the car on the short off season. Loeb coming in the team wil be very good for them on that part in 2019

[Allez Andruet]

I think he did not fuck up untill he had problem in Turkey (wich we can not blame on Neuville).
If you look at results and pace the whole year Neuville was the only one always up there. In the beginning of the season al went easy to be top 3, end of season he had to push it to the limits to much to keep up whit top 3.

I personally feel the car started 2018 as the best, but in the end was third maybe even fourth fastest.
Whitout Turkey points lost third and fourth places in remaining rounds would have been enough for wdc.

Isn't that a bit "selective" to put the blame on what happened in Turkey? One French guy also screwed up in Turkey, was 23 points behind Neuville after that rally, but still managed to beat Thierry 65 to 24 on the remaining events. Ogier sure would have the same (or even better) reasons for losing.

[Tarmop]

Well, RMC isn`t really an indicator, which of the for cars is the best. Sweden wasn`t also, because of road position, otherwise it would have been Tänak again (speed-wise and SS win wise it was). Mexico looked like M-Sport with Ogier have risen and are gone go their way...repeated it in Corsica. Argentina was again Toyota`s to take and... Personally like i have said, the cars, with some exceptions (Hyundai in Finland for example), are equal. You take one driver, he is unbeatable and then you look at his teammate...his is far behind, in worst case scenario, the slowest of the lot.

[Allez Andruet]

Personally like i have said, the cars, with some exceptions (Hyundai in Finland for example), are equal.

...or if not exactly equal, atleast they're so close to each other, that it's not the deciding factor. I think the best of the best (say Ogier, Tänak, Neuville) would be right there in the mix, whatever the machinery.