Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
I am sure you are also seeing the very mixed communication from them.

On one hand we get what you described saying they want a top driver and 3 cars to be able to fight in manu champs.

Then they fail to hire any of last years rally winners (did they even try or was that just PR talk?). And lately we get extensive interviews on how Greensmith has shown he is on "WRC level" and last days a story on how Fourmaux and Greensmith are on same level.
To me it seems the communication changed after Tänak and Neuville signed their contracts. After that they ditched talks of titles and instead started talking positive about Fourmaux and Greensmith, because it was their reality.

So PR talk for sponsors is one thing, real actions are something else. Worst case they enter next season with Breen, Fourmaux and Greensmith and a meh car that maybe manages 2-3 podiums. (basically 2019 style).

Neither Greensmith nor Fourmaux can be expected to beat any of Rovanpera/Evans/Ogier/Lappi/Neuville/Tanak/Sordo on speed in 2022. How many rallies can Breen be expected to beat (almost) all of them? 3 maybe? (SWE, FIN, EST, no Ypres next year), maybe fewer without road position advantage. That's in my eyes a long way from the announced ambition levels.
It's good to remember all three teams will have completely new cars. The balance between them could be anything. We cannot assume Toyota is as dominant as it is now, we cannot assume Hyundai being as good as it was in early 2017, we cannot assume M-Sport being as bad as they are now. It will all be a surprise.

And another thing to mix in is how the drivers will adapt to the new driving style of the new cars, which will be different to the WRC cars and different to R5's. And things like Hyundai on tarmac on other drivers than Neuville...likely that will all change.