[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[mknight]

So I saw there was a Loeb interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj-jezSrIRM

... sadly it follows the WRC-journalism standard, no new info and no interesting questions asked.

The only really good part is him basically saying how he liked fighting with Ogier.... he doesn't seem to care that Tanak was on a different level, as long as he fights with Ogier he is excited.


Anyway I get they don't ask nasty questions after people have bad rally, but now when Loeb got a good one why can't they ask some question that people actually wonder about?

Examples:
- Do you want to do more rallies this year following Chile? (I know he answered this elsewhere but it's something everyone wants to know)
- If not, how do you feel about driving in Portugal instead of one of Germany/Spain? if you could pick, which rallies would you prefer?
- How do you like the car on tarmac? In Corsica you had 2 offs in one rally which has basically never happened before, what do you think was the main reason?

[er88]

Anyway I get they don't ask nasty questions after people have bad rally, but now when Loeb got a good one why can't they ask some question that people actually wonder about?

Examples:
- Do you want to do more rallies this year following Chile? (I know he answered this elsewhere but it's something everyone wants to know)

In the very same interview he answered about doing more rallies this year, the full interview was in the preview show.

I mentioned it in my post in the Hyundai thread. He says he doesn't want to, if he was going to do 10 or so events he'd just have done a full season instead. So says it makes no sense, but acknowledged Mr Adamo will want to speak to him.

All in all, a 1 day test on gravel 1 and half month ago and it's clear to see why he struggled on Friday morning and shakedown. Yet despite that he beat Mikkelsen by 4 minutes and there were no mistakes by Andreas...

As for Germany, imo I don't think he has any ambition or motive to go back there. He could easily have done it with Citroen but turned it down and was adamant he didn't want to. He seems to enjoy an extended summer holiday thesedays and who can deny the GOAT that.

[tommeke_B]

Pretty sure Loeb is going to drive in Germany. He's even doing a French tarmac round with the car...

[doubled1978]

I’m sure Adamo will want him to do both Germany and Spain if he can convince him to up his event count.

[mknight]

On wrc.com there is a poll where people vote who wins Portugal.
Standings at 600 votes were:
Tänak 39%
Meeke 18%
Neuville 15%
Loeb 9%
Ogier 7%
Evans 6%

[Allez Andruet]

Fast forward some six months and we'll be reading a story about how the strategy Latvala chose at the start of the season was wrong and how he has to do something else for the remaining rallies.

Ok, so I was a bit too optimistic with that prediction in January. It took four months and eight days this season.

https://www.rallit.fi/jari-matti-lat...uus-on-mennyt/

[racerx1979]

Rumor has it the high-ups at TGR are a bit frustrated with JML's behavior and mental coaching issues... expect to see a calm JML this weekend. I also think this rumor on top of Juho Hanninen doing Sardegnia is not a good sign

[steve.mandzij]

Rumor has it the high-ups at TGR are a bit frustrated with JML's behavior and mental coaching issues... expect to see a calm JML this weekend. I also think this rumor on top of Juho Hanninen doing Sardegnia is not a good sign

Even the faithful Japanese?

[mknight]

When the most experienced WRC driver in probably the fastest WRC car atm that won the last rally of 2018 has 5th place as his best in 6 rallies and out of these only had real pace on one rally it's hardly a surprise.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Julian Porter on a recent podcast said all of the teams have spoken to Elfyn Evans and he is quite admired. He could well be sought after in 2020 as a solid no.2 driver by the factory teams.