[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[mknight]

and because that happened once,it will be such for ever?

Obviously not, but the risk is there and it's not small, rather the opposite.

Typically you don't have freely available 4th driver that both knows the car and can be relied to take points off the top3. (Haninen can't reliable take points off them, neither could Sordo last year). If a driver is so fast that he can you'd want to nominate him for manu points... but then what's the point of the 4th not-nominated driver again?

The cost-benefit calculation doesn't look nice. This is why Nandan didn't do that in 2017 (his own words) even though he was talking about considering it. His reasoning was that if the 4th driver could at least "block" manu points of other drivers (i.e if he finished 6th the manu nominated driver behind him would get manu points for 7th) then it might have been interesting, but with rules as they are it wasn't worth it.

[AnttiL]

Hyundai used four cars in Portugal 2018 in order to give equal amount of rallies for Sordo and Paddon. Choosing the non-nominated driver was a gamble which they ”lost”. But the result could have been the same with just no Sordo finishing at all on a three-car lineup.

[dimviii]

Obviously not, but the risk is there and it's not small, rather the opposite.
.

so you think that starting with 4 drivers at more rallies will be a disadvantage for Hyundai.
and all this,because once they tried they failed.

[Crazy J]

great and interesting news, especially the part "to stay race-sharp"

It is nice for Hanninen to get this guest star opportunity to yet extend his rally career. It is a shame though that after all those promising title years with Skoda, the WRC career was just getting nowhere. I hope Lappi haven't got the same disease.

[COD]

Hänninen case makes sense, testing the car in real conditions and when he does a rally, he is better tester as well as he has up to date experience.

[Simmi]

If they end up running Katsuta as a fourth car too at points is there some merit to expanding and bringing through new crew members etc? Can test more than just the car in a rally situation.

[Tarmop]

They don`t need to expand...

[racerx1979]

If they end up running Katsuta as a fourth car too at points is there some merit to expanding and bringing through new crew members etc? Can test more than just the car in a rally situation.

Well rumor has it Katsuta needs a lot of time and work (not really a rumor if you ask me) before he is granted a full drive. Kalle will be driving a full season in a Toyota before Katsuta...

At least that's what the TGR team is reporting to the high-ups and who can disagree. Katsuta would be finishing nowhere near the current top 10 and would end up costing a lot of money.

[Japé]

It would be easier to compare Katsuta's performance against other R5 drivers if he would be driving e.g. new Polo or Fabia instead of old Fiesta.

[racerx1979]

It would be easier to compare Katsuta's performance against other R5 drivers if he would be driving e.g. new Polo or Fabia instead of old Fiesta.

Of course, but he has tested the Yaris...