Silly Season 2022

[TypeR]

well why not if.. only slow Fiesta has been holding him back..
(1 stage win during last 1.5 season)

[Danny0405]

Quite surprised he leaves M-Sport this «*early*» in the season, especially because he still seems to stay with Buagsport (and also it seems he will not even do Acropolis where he was entered); I thought he would do at least Finland in RC1 to keep good relations with Jouhki at least.

From MW’s interview, I understood the trigger was that M-Sport told Buagsport they will not retain him for 2022 so that Jouhki decides it makes no sense anymore to give money to M-Sport to drive with them.
Probably also the fact that he is not anymore more in the game for the WRC2 championship since Belgium has played a significant part.

I would be quite surprised he obtains a good opportunity for a show-off in the end of the season in a RC1 car.
If Toyota has a 5th car to put in Finland (but I don’t think so), it would be more logical to put Lappi in it as he is the main contender for next year.
And if Hyundai has a seat available for Finland (either by substituting Breen or Loubet but it would be a non-sense to «*fire*» Breen before he has done Finland), Solberg or even Mikkelsen would be candidate for the spot.

Maybe in a RC2 car (for example under Toksport registration to try to take some points to Ostberg in the championship and to prepare next season).
It will be quite hard for him to get it back in the main category. Next year, if we say Breen will have a spot somewhere anyway and Lappi to Toyota is a lock, I would not even put Suninen in my top 3 of remaining available drivers; quite a disappointing career so far when we remember how fast he succeeded in his adaptation from R2 to R5 + his two stints Poland+Finland 2017 in WRC.
But in rally, never say never.

[EstWRC]

sadly i think his career is kinda over

i had high hopes with him after the brilliant debut rallies in 17'...but it seems to me its not only the car, but also himself that got stuck with the development over the years...you know, not everybody excels in the main class, i remember having the same experience with Kevin Abbring, showed so much promise in lower class but didnt live up when he got his chance.


he could prove me totally wrong but i doubt so but i really hope so

[KertR]

If they decided to leave M-Sport so quickly and firmly, sure there is a secure plan for future.

Toyota would be a logical choice, but would they bring a 5th car to the game??? Njaah dont think so.

Hyundai for sure, Teemu would be fast in Finland for a debute at Hyundai, but is he worth to replace Breen or Loubet? I think no one can anserw that. Tänak at Hyundai is all but competive, yes he has speed at surtain points, but he cant bring wins... Such a shame....... But there must have been a certain reason why left Toyota, but defantly, it cost him +2 titles.

What happens to Teemu, I think soon there will be news.

Sure he has had speed even in Fiesta, but maybe, it has come from such a effort, that the result is crash, because the car is not competitive at normal level compare to Toyota and Hyundai.

Was it 2020 Moza early stages where he was noticeably fastest from the others, but before end of the stage, just flew out of the track. It shows guy has the speed, but with Fiesta, he had strenght so much, that he went out of limit. Maybe, with competitive car, there could be results, but who nows, Tänak with Hyundai.... Just cant understand how bad this can be...

[AnttiL]

well why not if.. only slow Fiesta has been holding him back..
(1 stage win during last 1.5 season)

How about having only 1 day of testing for a whole year? Or a car that's fitted with old parts and needs to be nursed to the finish (case Estonia)?

Meanwhile, Toyota is losing to Hyundai when they test on a wrong type of road, because the setup needs to be absolutely right from the beginning. How do you do that without no testing at all?

[cali]

Just out of curiosity - does anyone know how much tests has had Gus and Adrien?

I think they haven't been significantly more behind the wheel than Teemu.

For me the worrying part with Teemu is that he has been too close to Gus with speed and sometimes Gus has even had the upper edge on him.

But I agree with EstWRC and looks like this could be the end of the road for Teemu in a Rally1 category. Maybe he has few outings in Rally1 left to prove himself but I see Rally2 for him if he still has motivation to continue. So far sadly Rally2 results have been also underwhelming as well although Fiesta seems to be generally slower than VW and Škoda. This ofc will be now interesting to see how Gryazin will manage with the Fiesta R5


Sent from my GM1913 using Tapatalk

[mknight]

The others had more tests. As a simple example before Portugal both had a day of tests.

Then Suninen went to Sardinia without ever driving on the Pirelli gravel tires and when he crashed was told (openly in media) by Millener that it was his problem. And this was applauded by people here..

Anyway I agree one of the main problems was that in Estonia Greensmith was regularly as fast or faster than him.

In WRC2 on the other hand Suninen did pretty well, matching Lappi for big part of Portugal for example. Much better than Fourmaux anyway. Problem is IT doesn't help he is better than Fourmaux in WRC2 when he is not better in WRC.

Let's remember that Suninen is actually paying in some way for his drives at MSport. And for that he gets no tests and sometimes var breaking after two stages (Estonia).

Moving on to the future. He definitely has a plan for Finland. 4th Hyundai looks by far most likely. In that case I Hope he drives a new(er) car like Solberg in Arctic and not an old hybrid like Loubet.
After that the options are 5th Toyota or Fabia or Polo in WRC2, but I see both as much less likely.

[TypeR]

I don't buy that ,,oh we tested on totally wrong stages''.. Not being in WRC for first season or event..
In Arctic they had Hänninen weeks before testing the whole rally..
Rovanperä and Evans both got stage wins, Rova finished 2nd. Ogier did a rookie mistake(can't blame testing).

Toyota has won 6 out of 8 event this year(including four double wins).

No matter how much they test, other teams and drivers can and will be faster sometimes..

[doubled1978]

I think you guys are right that he must have something lined up for Finland, and honestly it makes sense for him, as for what it is, who knows, I don’t think I’d be surprised at anything really.

[mknight]

AnttiL's point was that the margins at WRC are really small and everything can make that small difference, so a lack of testing (for Suninen) is a big disadvantage.