2022 WRC News & Rumours

[mknight]

my guess is that there must be a certain reason why no one hires him, i mean everybody knows the drivers and each other so well inside the service park and teams

from what i have heard from his Hyundai days is that he couldnt come up with his own set-up, always copied Thierrys, Loeb etc

On VW days he copied Ogiers set-up, i remember Latvala even admitting it in one interview some time back and didnt even he himself mention it? dont remember anymore

In VW days (as a fresh WRC driver) he tried to mimic Ogier in everything. Latvala did as well (less left foot braking etc, was interviewed om that) and it didn't work for him so he went back. Worked for Mikkelsen since he started winning rallies.

I very much doubt this was the case at Hyundai since he was getting own diffs etc. (commented on when Loeb was forced to drive same diff in Portugal), and it certainly isn't true in Skoda when he is the only top driver ( and got own dif. made both for snow and fast gravel last year).
That he was struggling to set up the Hyundai is certain, Loeb and Tanak were as well for multiple years.

About being hard to work with... I have no idea, but the same has been said about every second driver in WRC at some point.

I don't think there is one specific reason for him not having a drive. Just a sum of circumstances. Note that in 2017 he got the 2 year Hyundai contract which at that time seemed to be the best contract you could get. Struggling there certainly hurt a lot. Now with Loebs and Tanaks experience it looks very different.
On top of that Citroen unexpectedly left and then corona came, note that Latvala and Meeke also lost their drives at that moment.

Another real option came before this year. Again small things, Lappi fits better for fast rallies that Ogier doesn't do (Mikkelsen is better at "Ogiers" rallies), Breen seemed on upwards trajectory and MSport only has one paid driver seat and Hyundai goes all or nothing with Solberg no matter results.