Silly Season 2020

[Allez Andruet]

Estonian media said that Ogier has 1+1 with Citroën but also the contract states that if he is not continuing with Citroën he is not allowed to go to any other team. Wondering is this true because theres a lot of rumours Ogier>Toyota, but it seems he cant go even if he would like to.

According to this Autosport article from September 2018 Ogier's contract with Citroen is 2+1 (obviously we've learned later on that the option won't be exercised).

[EstWRC]

Tommi was the one who hired Lappi back in 2016 and wanted to keep him for 2019.

that makes Lappis leaving even more weird then.

i remember Lappi also saying, Id like to stay but....

we will never know that but.

[mknight]

Tommi was the one who hired Lappi back in 2016 and wanted to keep him for 2019.

It's not like he had many options in 2016... his original team for 2017 was Hanninen who only drove one rally in 2015 and his best ever WRC result was 6th place and Lappi who was the clearly best young driver and was just about to win WRC2 over Suninen.

The options came first at the end of the year when VW left.

[Allez Andruet]

It's not like he had many options in 2016... his original team for 2017 was Hanninen who only drove one rally in 2015 and his best ever WRC result was 6th place and Lappi who was the clearly best young driver and was just about to win WRC2 over Suninen.

The options came first at the end of the year when VW left.

Ofcourse the options were limited and we never know what would have happened with Lappi if the VW trio was available earlier in 2016, but I don't think it makes any difference. Nevertheless, Mäkinen offered Lappi a deal for 2019 (if not longer) which Lappi and team Even turned down.

[denkimi]

Why Neuville is happy to have Tänak in Hyundai - he may have hope, that Tänak can not get used to with car (fast enough) and he can be number one in the team and main competitor against Ogier for WDC.

I think neuville believes he has a better chance against tanak in the same car than he has to tanak in the toyota.

Which in itself says a lot about how he thinks about the hyundai compares to the toyota.

[AnttiL]

Nevertheless, Mäkinen offered Lappi a deal for 2019 (if not longer) which Lappi and team Even turned down.

This is just my own speculation, but I think they made a very low offer so they could say they offered him a seat, but it was something that no one would accept.

[T16]

Motorsport news also reporting Tänak has left.

[sinepikohv]

Motorsport news also reporting Tänak has left.

Who isn't?

It's awful that instead of his and Martin's title win, the contract speculation steals the headlines. Shouldn't be like that at all.

[AnttiL]

Motorsport news also reporting Tänak has left.

Isn't that the same media house as Autosport?

[T16]

Isn't that just copying articles from Autosport?

They are the same company, so probably, yes. My point was that they haven't retracted their position on it. I guess all will be clear soon enough.