Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
In almost half of his rallies in 2019 Mikkelsen drove at less than maximum attack to secure points under Adamo orders. There was even an analysis by the pushing pace guy that showed it in numbers. He was also forbidden from pushing on most power stages. (Swe, Arg, Turkey, GB). Sometimes very directly on allive.

Doesn't look like listening or not listening to Adamos orders is the main issue here. Might be he is not interested in just 2-3 starts, might be something else. Adamos words were that he is binary and either trusts a driver or he doesn't.

At end of 2018 I started mentioning the "Hyundai process", it's somehow interesting that it keeps extending still..

2017: Paddon and Sordo struggle - > reduce their starts, hire Mikkelsen
2018: Mikkelsen struggles - > reduce Mikkelsen starts, kick Paddon, hire Loeb
2019: Loeb struggles - > kick Mikkelsen, reduce Loeb starts, hire Breen and then Tanak

2019-2020 (TBC) : Breen struggles, Tänak struggles? - > kick Loeb?, hire Huttunen?
We'll see...
Mikkelsen drove a nail through his own coffin when he could barely edge out R5 cars on tarmac events, in addition to his mistakes on tarmac like Monte (or Corsica?) where he crashed at stage end. Regardless of his earlier successes and subsequent improvements in pace his torrid, pathetic showings on tarmac likely made Adamo eager to get rid of him, a driver who could either potentially be on the podium or have the speed to compete with a Katsuta.