2022 WRC News & Rumours

[Andre Oliveira]

Hyundai cancelled the PET in Portugal today. Rumours about big discussion with Ott (the driver that was to drive today).

[EstWRC]

Ouch https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/fourm...ntry-in-doubt/

[EstWRC]

Hyundai cancelled the PET in Portugal today. Rumours about big discussion with Ott (the driver that was to drive today).

He didn’t want to drive today then or what’s the issue?

[wyler]

In the meanwhile, Sordo confirmed for Italy:

��*�� Here is our plan for the rally after next - the line-up for Rally Italia Sardegna ����!
1️⃣1️⃣ Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe ����
8️⃣ Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja ����
6️⃣ Dani Sordo / Cándido Carrera ����

[the sniper]

Ouch https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/fourm...ntry-in-doubt/

“You can’t just keep turning up to the workshop and saying sorry, but this is a junior team and when we’re developing young drivers these are the difficulties we face."

If they had Meeke driving they'd at least be a more competitive team, while facing those difficulties.

[er88]

Ouch https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/fourm...ntry-in-doubt/

Granted he can't keep crashing, but I feel Msport have had the wrong approach with Fourmaux. Crashing in Monte is not unusual for anyone - it happens. Fourmaux in his 1st ever time in a competitive wrc car got a bit too keen hunting great stage times. Then a crash in one of the most chaotic tarmac rallies in history.

The Msport press was OTT surrounding that Monte off with Fourmaux helping rebuild the car etc etc, and now he's being publicly threatened by the team over his future after 3 events (one where the car failed him iirc) . No wonder he is a bag of nerves.

I also have an issue with this approach from Msport because they're the ones who chose to give Fourmaux the drive - knowing full well he's bringing backing, he's a rookie, and he was crashing last season on tarmac. They could've given better drivers the seat instead...., if they didn't realise this might be a problem...

[mknight]

One possibility is that things have changed.

-During Croatia there was a clip of Ford boss getting a ride in Puma with Breen. Afterwards he said how good it was to see a team doing everything to win.
- MSport won the first rally and led manus, so the car seems competetive and the team could theoretically aim for titles.

Ford after seeing Monte results wonders why the next two rallies are "back to 2021/2020". Possibly even putting some pressure on Malcolm or getting him to wonder himself.

Bad for Fourmaux cause he definitely isn't ready to be a stable points scorer.

They have Loeb for Portugal though, so I don't see a lineup change happening. Maybe just not nominating him for manus. Would be great if they swapped him with Hutunen though, but he just had terrible rally. (I really doubt they will let Mikkelsen drive for free or even pay him).

[doubled1978]

I couldn’t help feeling that this mistake might have been one too many in this number of events. I like Fourmaux and I believe he has got the ability, but he is clearly in a perilous position now. In the article it rather reads like he will be driving something other than a Puma in Portugal, Rally2 possibly, and maybe that will be a good thing to take him out of the firing line for a rally or two.
MSport must be feeling the heat that after the Monte fanfare they have shown pretty much nothing for two rallies with what most believe to be a very good car.
I can see a safe pair of hands such as Mikkelsen getting a drive or two.

[wyler]

Granted he can't keep crashing, but I feel Msport have had the wrong approach with Fourmaux. Crashing in Monte is not unusual for anyone - it happens. Fourmaux in his 1st ever time in a competitive wrc car got a bit too keen hunting great stage times. Then a crash in one of the most chaotic tarmac rallies in history.

The Msport press was OTT surrounding that Monte off with Fourmaux helping rebuild the car etc etc, and now he's being publicly threatened by the team over his future after 3 events (one where the car failed him iirc) . No wonder he is a bag of nerves.

I also have an issue with this approach from Msport because they're the ones who chose to give Fourmaux the drive - knowing full well he's bringing backing, he's a rookie, and he was crashing last season on tarmac. They could've given better drivers the seat instead...., if they didn't realise this might be a problem...

it really depends on what the "mission" was. if the mission was bringing home the car, even with bad times ( and it could have been a good strategy, just as katsuta) so it's for sure annoying for m-sport. if the mission was to show some pace at the cost of binning it, that's completely another story, but i doubt this would be the case. i think the general idea was pretty much make km with a pace similar -or challenging- greensmith. and i think this was the idea for the entire season, unless dry tarmac maybe.

[Danny0405]

Personnally, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to give him one rally off (the discussion is not about firing him); it has already been applied for other drivers in a bad streak even if it was more experienced drivers (Duval, Meeke, Latvala) and generally, it worked (at least on the short-term).

The streak since the end of last year is very bad (even if Sweden is not his fault); with Camilli, they try another strategy and, even if there was a little improvement at one moment, it failed in the end.

The sure thing is that they cannot do as if nothing happens.
I suppose that they are also discussing with Red Bull as M-Sport can absolutely not take this decision without Red Bull agreement (financing Fourmaux program + Loeb’s drives and can also be useful in the future for other drivers). In that sense, Mikkelsen could be an option as he still has some links with Red Bull so it could avoid tensions about the Red Bull-MSport «*contract*»