Originally Posted by
Crazy J
Reading comments from different forums and media last couple of days, it looks quite clear that someone has machined shitstorm against TMR, Tommi, Kaj and others. Some doubts if it was really deserved? Maybe it is appealing to first machine shitstorm in media and then try to hijack WRC business from TMR. Probably most of the mentioned issues are quite natural in this area and no one has said that running WRC team successfully is like a walk in the park. With salary levels in Finland and Estonia, you can't meet WRC team salaries from central Europe/UK, costs needs to be kept low. Neither is the Finland/Estonia as a location or cultural environment appealing to keep foreign resources in a team for a longer period. Change in personnel is typical especially in new and remote organizations. It would be weird e.g. if Citroen would have more resource transition than TMR. What comes to Tommi and Kaj, they have been that sort of typical steady Finnish persons forever and probably even improved from HR and PR skills during the TMR period. We need to remember that Tommi's background is farmer from central Finland, not CEO of HR consultancy agency. His achievements in TMR are quite decent so far.
Part of the WRC's popularity in the past was that teammates were competing against each other. Now people are blaming Tommi keeping the team internal competition open unlike other teams. Is "only 1 driver per team" F1 type of competition what we really want to see in WRC? Tommi's philosophy might have been that drivers will sort their order by driving and after couple of rallies it is clear and from then on nro 1 driver gets more attention than others. Would be alarming to hear if TMR has not given Tanak attention he has wanted/deserved. What comes to team aspect, Tommi has said in media that Tanak is nro 1 but has he ever restricted Tanak's driving because of Latvala or Meeke crashing, probably not. Letting 2nd or 3rd driver to drive freely their own best speed does not meant that he would allow or encourage them to crash constantly. Tommi is maybe even too supportive for underperforming drivers, unlike Adamo. In this case Tommi is following more known HR theories than Adamo. Same comes to loyalty that Japanese and Toyota also respects.
What comes to lot spoken leaving of Lappi, probably no one restricted him to show that he could be nro 1 driver in Toyota. nro 3 does not naturally get as big attention and salary as nro 1. At the state of his career probably Lappi got better deal from Citroen and same time TMR/TGR noticed that Lappi will not instantly become new Ogier and TMR has therefore valued Meeke's driving/engineering/PR skills to be more needed asset for them atm.
Also very hard to see why TMR would not like to continue commitment and co-operation with MMM and Tanak. Furthermore if TMR would not have mutual respect towards Estonian personnel, half of the TMR would not be Estonian as currently. For sure TMR will be very disappointed in case if Tanak is leaving. Also what comes to Japanese culture, leaving from Japanese brand to Korean might be not looked well compared e.g. moving from Japanese team to other Japanese team.
Resume round 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnlnIN_B4Co
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