2022 WRC News & Rumours

[mknight]

I can see the crew change at Hyundai being Suninen. Rotate Sordo and him in the 3rd car, and run Solberg in a 4th car all season.

I said before that of all moves this would help Solberg the most, he should be asking for this himself.

(with the understanding that Suninen is not competing with Solberg for future position, it should be set in stone at start of the season that Solberg won't be nominated driver, so that he doesn't try to impress)

[mknight]

Not specified but I suppose he means Millener and Wilson.

I think there might be difference between these two (and others in leadership). I read somewhere that Breens granny is/was? reportedly good friend with Wilsons.
At the same time Wilson is usually the one to freak out when drivers crash.

[mknight]

Stuff from Kristian Sohlberg's twitch stream


- When Breen crashed, the leaders didn't speak to him, just sent nasty text messages. He's being treated as bad as Suninen in 2021 and it seems the intention is to make him leave the team.

- Tänak is "for sure not going to Toyota"
- There are strong rumors of crew changes at Hyundai for next year

There could be one common answer to these. But I highly doubt it.

[AnttiL]

Gus - 2/10 after the crash was what? Why say something that equates to nothing?

The point was that on the stream Sohlberg and a guest were going through the Rally1 drivers and giving everyone a 0-10 grade like Colin Clark. Clark gave Gus 4/10 and the guest agreed but Sohlberg said that "even if this is the driver I'm coaching, I wouldn't give even that much, more like 2/10. But I can't tell you the details"

[ouvreur]

The point was that on the stream Sohlberg and a guest were going through the Rally1 drivers and giving everyone a 0-10 grade like Colin Clark. Clark gave Gus 4/10 and the guest agreed but Sohlberg said that "even if this is the driver I'm coaching, I wouldn't give even that much, more like 2/10. But I can't tell you the details"

Sounds like a pretty fast and easy way to lose that coaching gig...

Isn't Gus' lack of progress in top-flight machinery a pretty damning indictment of his ability as a coach?

[WRCStan]

There could be one common answer to these. But I highly doubt it.

I think he implies they might want Breen out immediately, not for Tanak next year. That could have been the desired intent on Saturday, then after Fourmaux crashed the decision was taken elsewhere so they couldn't sack Breen anyway if they wanted - contract details aside.

I think we agree MSport needs at minimum podiums/around podiums to actually attract paydrivers and show the car is competitive. Else they go to others when possible (Loubet and Veiby at Hyundai), or to Rally2 (Gryazin).
"Just paydrivers" are unable to prove that. What kept them in the game somehow in 2019 was Evans that could sometimes be fast (Corsica, GB (bare the issues)), but at that point he wasn't really a paydriver with no results.

I can't agree - there literally isn't any other choice for customers. Whether the car is 11th by paydriver or Loeb winning isn't swaying anyone's decision to go Rally1 or not. Whether it has mechanical failures might.

For this year MSport had a relatively risky strategy, hoping that Breen will at least stay the same or improve (and charge for championship) and that Fourmaux and Greensmith improve. In a late move they secured themselves with Loeb (still risky given his performance at Hyundai, but free PR anyway).
Loeb proved really good move cause none of the other things worked. Breen is worse than last year, Fourmaux is going backwards (compare with Croatia or Portugal last year), Greensmith is the same (bad).

They hired Breen because he was free (as suggested on here) and they needed somebody, anybody, to just turn up and not consistently crash or embarrass them - the Fourmaux deal came too late in the hour. Can discuss Breen vs A.N Other but at the time, no Breen = no Gus, Rockdoor, Huttunen, Loubet, Serderidis, Bertelli, Red Bull... Loeb came via the promoter like a customer, M-Sport didn't ring him. There's no championship charge expectations anywhere, there's no risky strategy, there's no number one driver...

[speederbee]

Sounds like a pretty fast and easy way to lose that coaching gig...

Isn't Gus' lack of progress in top-flight machinery a pretty damning indictment of his ability as a coach?

Agreed... But is there any independent confirmation that he actually does work as Gus's coach, and he isn't just making this up?

Looking at his own results, I don't see why he would be fit to coach anybody in a world rally car. His WRC career best was 6th place, and that was nearly 20 years ago. He may have been a decent enough lower tier driver, perhaps, but coaching world rally drivers?

[ouvreur]

Agreed... But is there any independent confirmation that he actually does work as Gus's coach, and he isn't just making this up?

Looking at his own results, I don't see why he would be fit to coach anybody in a world rally car. His WRC career best was 6th place, and that was nearly 20 years ago. He may have been a decent enough lower tier driver, perhaps, but coaching world rally drivers?

This link confirms it.

The other points... while it's true that some of the best coaches in many sports have zero top-level competitive playing experience, and being good at doing something doesn't always mean you'll be a good teacher, it's hard to argue with your assessment.

And I really don't understand why he would be spouting stuff like "I'd give him a lower rating, ooh, but I can't tell you why", trying to impress about 100 people on Twitch, unless he was actively looking to get fired.

Good luck finding another Gus Greensmith to 'coach', pal.

[wyler]

Sounds like a pretty fast and easy way to lose that coaching gig...

Isn't Gus' lack of progress in top-flight machinery a pretty damning indictment of his ability as a coach?

or, this may be a statement that gus is not doing what is asked, hence why the 2 instead of 4, probably because is workin out his way instead of following terms...

[speederbee]

This link confirms it.

Thanks!