Quote Originally Posted by dimviii View Post
....but how did you see that Toyota lost the manufacture championship?
could be different if Makinen had apply orders at his team about Nr 1 ?
feel free to discuss.
i am going for a nap,and looking forward to read your opinion.
For same reasons we talked about in January when they announced the teams.

Rovanpera had to in his first season outscore Loeb/Sordo (+ someone who turned to be Breen) on their best events and with road advantage.
It's not a surprise he did not do that.

At the same time Evans had to outscore one of Tanak/Neuville which he actually managed, much to the surprise of a lot of people.

So Toyota actually did much better than most people including me expected.

What could they have done different?
Either
a) Rotate 3driver (for example with Latvala in the loop, but he is good on same rallies as Rovanpera atm or other drivers)
b) Hire full time 3rd driver that could outscore the mentioned Hyundai 3rd drivers. Latvala and Meeke did not manage that in 2019. Possible options were Lappi or Mikkelsen. Neither of them seem to be popular at Toyota (maybe also due to Jouhki, and Jouhki backs Rovanpera, so that wouldn't probably work well). It's off course not certain they would do better when Sordo/Loeb/Breen had road position advantages on gravel rallies.