Silly Season 2022

[AnttiL]

It's easy to criticise the Fiesta and M-Sport but their finances were badly hit by the pandemic and lack of full factory support.

Suninen hasnt done himself any favours on occaisions this year and his many offs and some mechanicals have been through his own fault.

Plus both Fourmaux and Greensmith have received some praise this season for some of their times and improvements and done so with much less experience in the WRC car.

I wish Teemu well and we'll see if he can reach the top level elsewhere.

Teemu stood no chance in the first place for Arctic and Estonia, the car was just too slow for the fast rallies. And the two rallies where he could have performed better, he crashed on SS1. It’s sad we didn’t get to see his pace on the rest of the rallies, or against Fourmaux.

BTW which mechanic faults were his own fault?

[doubled1978]

It's easy to criticise the Fiesta and M-Sport but their finances were badly hit by the pandemic and lack of full factory support.

Suninen hasnt done himself any favours on occaisions this year and his many offs and some mechanicals have been through his own fault.

Plus both Fourmaux and Greensmith have received some praise this season for some of their times and improvements and done so with much less experience in the WRC car.

I wish Teemu well and we'll see if he can reach the top level elsewhere.

I’m not sure anyone is criticising MSport or the Fiesta particularly, everyone on here is fully aware they don’t have the budget to develop as Hyundai and Toyota do, but the reality is the car is now off the pace and they aren’t spending money on it. Everyone know why, but those are the facts.

[pantealex]

Only way I can see Huttunen starting with Hyundai in WRC Finland is:
He gets that car for FREE
Why would Adamo give him car for FREE, considering Suninen´s results 2021 ?

TGR also hires cars and Yaris has been way better in Finland than i20. (remember that Jouhki is/was manager of Jari-Matti)

You are right that everyone knows that he is fast in Finland so for future Spain would be better but
local sponsor wants/pays him to drive in Finland.

I´m very surprised if he enters with Hyundai, it´s Yaris or Rally2 from TGS/Gardemaister (Jouhki was his manager also)

[AnttiL]

Also remember Hyundai has never been so good in Finland

[tommeke_B]

Also remember Hyundai has never been so good in Finland

Yes but a lot happened since last Rally Finland, which is more than 2 years ago now. The car was very fast in Estonia, I can't see why it couldn't be fast in Finland right now.

[EstWRC]

Yes but a lot happened since last Rally Finland, which is more than 2 years ago now. The car was very fast in Estonia, I can't see why it couldn't be fast in Finland right now.

exactly and also fast at Arctic this year.

Ott said already last year after Rally Finland test at Ouninpohja area that he felt they were good enough to take the fight to Toyotas.

[Danny0405]

From the Finnish article, it seems that the solution is a 5th Toyota in Finland for Suninen; quite surprising for me because if Toyota has a 5th car to put, Lappi would be a clearer choice for me as he is the main contender for next season’s seat. But with some money from Teemu’s team (+ a reduced cost as Toyota main facility is based in Finland) + maybe a wish to give a chance to Suninen, it might change the logic for Toyota.

Hyundai would be more surprising except if Loubet’s sponsors have decided to stop the game considering his poor performance.

[mknight]

Well if he is fully paying Toyota is likely cheaper and easier to get and very importantly also test before Finland.

Hyundai depends on Adamo. If he has one of his "must do something" moments he might jump on the opportunity.
That said maybe after Ypres he calmed down a bit.

[Allez Andruet]

IF Suninen is about to drive a WRC in Finland, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Hyundai after all. You're always compared to your teammates first and it would be a huge task for anyone to go against TGR's regular fab four in Finland even with a test day or two. It really wouldn't help Suninen's case if he was the fifth fastest Toyota. Hyundai might - only might - be a bit different in that sense. Ofcourse Suninen has no chance to match Tänak's monster pace, but maybe Neuville and Breen could be pushed in Finland. Surely that would also be against the odds, but I'm ready to call it (Suninen doing better in a Hyundai vs. his teammates) the more likely of the two options.

[Danny0405]

IF Suninen is about to drive a WRC in Finland, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Hyundai after all. You're always compared to your teammates first and it would be a huge task for anyone to go against TGR's regular fab four in Finland even with a test day or two

Not that convinced by this reason for especially one point: Toyota drivers will have worst road positions than Hyundai drivers in Finland.
+ the Toyota has shown better sign for a fast adaptation for a driver than the Hyundai (even if Solberg’s performance in Arctic leads to be a little more cautious on that).
And Breen in Finland with a very good road position is clearly more dangerous than Ogier with a 1st road position and his conservative title mode (and probably also more dangerous than Evans with a 2nd or 3rd position on the road).

For me, the only reason that could justify the Hyundai would be that Adamo is interested in testing Suninen for a potential 3rd shared car with Sordo in 2022.