Silly Season 2022

[AnttiL]

Thing with Mikkelsen is that he never was a driver that wins many stages by large margins. It's always "steady pace", once he gets some gap he starts controlling it rather than pushing on. ( see Estonia this year, Greece, Fafe). For some this shows that he "barely" has the pace to win. "Mcrae/Meeke" style of winning one stage big then crashing on next is more popular, even by team bosses, just look at Solberg, Lukyanuk or even Fourmaux.

When Mikkelsen doesn't feel the car does what it should, he backs off. Tänak tries to push trough. Sometimes he crashes because of it, some times he gets better results. Tänak did this after Mikkelsen was denied changes he wanted. Tänak is very vocal when things are bad, I wonder what he would have said if he had gotten the car Mikkelsen was driving in 2018. The perspective is not that clear, but it looks clear on paper. I think the Rally1 concept will suit Tänak better the WRC i20, and i think Neuville knows this.

Mikkelsen also crashed. For example Australia 2017, Finland 2018 or Monte 2019.

Problem was he did not gel with the Hyundai, especially on tarmac (ring a bell?). So he got screwed again.

Mikkelsen was actually doing quite well in the Hyundai, especially on technical gravel. Instantly in his first three events he was leading Spain and Australia after first days. It was quite often technical problems or punctures ruining the rallies (like Argentina and Sardinia 2018, retired from lead). But in some rallies he was just lost and off the pace. All tarmac rallies, as well as Chile, Wales and Spain 2019.

Difficult to say why he's not getting a seat instead of others. Maybe team bosses don't see him as a future prospect or maybe he demands a higher salary than "future prospects".

Also it's wrong to bring someone like Fourmaux into the comparison, we haven't seen yet what he can do. And AFAIK Lukyanuk doesn't have a deal from any team boss, he's constantly gathering budget.