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Thread: 2022 WRC News & Rumours
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27th June 2022, 19:46 #711
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27th June 2022, 19:53 #712
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And if they were riding bikes it would be cycling.
But that is not the point. The point is that all kalle's teammates are horribly underperforming. We see evans and katsuta having less than half the points of kalle, but the ogier/lappi combination is actually even worse with only 51 points.
They are lucky that hyundai is screwing it up even worse. Only kalle is keeping them afloat.
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27th June 2022, 20:06 #713
Well that's it isn't it? if Hyundai's car wouldn't keep breaking a part we might've actually got to see a championship fight on our hand, at least for the manufacturers if not for Thierry & Ott against Kalle, just think how many times have the car let them down when they were fighting at the front? Even in Monte, at least Thierry there could get a podium if not for all his troubles. Also, I honestly don't see how Hyundai are serious about getting that manufacturers title when for most of the year they have a 3rd driver in what you could say his rookie season, but all of that should be discussed in the Hyundai thread.
Only you know your true potential.
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27th June 2022, 20:14 #714
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Ogier likely has motivation for more starts. He has not won with Rally1 yet, unlike Loeb which certainly really pisses him off. Only Monte was a performace he can be satisfied with.
Evans should improve reliability, Kinda looks like he felt this was his chance for title after Ogier and before Rovanpera improves and "stressed" too much.
But imo biggest pressure at Toyota is on Lappi. Before this season he was known to bring results on fast loose surface rallies while being unreliable both in terms of speed and crashes elsewhere...and then he crashed on both "elsewhere" rallies (Croatia, Sardinia). If Ogier wants more starts, it might become harder for Lappi to even get these opportunities and he risks getting stuck in "Sordo like" position.
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27th June 2022, 20:29 #715Only you know your true potential.
This year we rally #ForCraig
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27th June 2022, 20:46 #716
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That's the problem.
If Ogier wants more rallies how many rallies that are not fast gravel will there be for Lappi? Ypres would be extremely difficult to do well on with very little experience (one start in 2014 with crash from 3rd).
Greece is maybe most likely and again Lappi has little experience there.
Catalunya is a rally Ogier likes (and Lappi has bad record on) and he will want to do Toyota home rally.
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27th June 2022, 20:48 #717
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Personally, I don’t think the market will move before Greece. There are the rumors about Hyundai, no no-brainer prospect in Rally2 and some disappointing drivers in Rally1 so far in the ones with no guaranteed future (Lappi, Fourmaux, Greensmith, Solberg) + what will do the old guys (Sordo, Loeb, Ogier).
And the big 5 is under contract.
So teams have interest to wait and see for the summer.
At the moment, I would say that for Toyota the best move is the following one:
- 1st car: Kalle for sure
- 2nd car: Evans. When you have the next big thing and the best car in the hands, I don’t see the point to take Tanak or Neuville with the risk of impacting relation with Kalle. And, whatever we can say, Evans is the best of the rest at the moment in terms of speed.
I don’t see Ogier coming back full-time but sounds like he could make a part-time job.
Lappi is a bit disappointing so far and it will be complicated for Latvala to resist to Japanese pressure if Katsuta does a rather good second half ... but he is a bit slow on tarmac.
So I would say Katsuta full-year between 3rd and 4th car (as Hyundai did with Paddon at the beginning of his career with 2nd/3rd car).
With
3rd car: shared between Ogier (5/6 rounds with 3 tarmac) and Katsuta (7/8 rounds)
4th car: shared between Katsuta (5/6 rounds) and a young driver with no Rally1 experience (Rossel, Huttunen, Lindholm, Ingram) for 6/8 rounds.
Sounds the best balance for me
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27th June 2022, 21:07 #718Only you know your true potential.
This year we rally #ForCraig
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27th June 2022, 21:10 #719
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27th June 2022, 21:38 #720
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I also think Toyota will stay the same. Ogier +Lappi sharing should actually work. The only problem is that it gets Lappi "stuck" at only the fast rallies (a bit like Breen in Hyundai).
You'd be crazy to change Lappi for Huttunen or Ingram. Probably still a bit early for Lindholm or Rossel and Toyota does not need a new developing driver yet. Mikkelsen might be better allrounder, but not for fast gravel only. So there isn't really anyone to pick unless some massive disaster happens for Evans or Lappi.
Toyota does not need Tanak at this point at all either. And I would guess Japan has some bad feelings towards him.
It's MSport or Hyundai.
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