2023 WRC News & Rumours

[drive]

Loubet confirmed in the second Puma
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2022/wrc...e-for-new-duo/

[Rallyest]

Loubet confirmed in the second Puma
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2022/wrc...e-for-new-duo/

Really great news, i hope he can take the next step this year, he should be used to with the car now, and if he can and is willing to learn from Ott, and Ott is there to aid him i think he will do very well.

[mknight]

It works in 2021 and at the beginning of 2022, the young Toksport bunch was not reliable enough to bet all on them against Rossel, Suninen or potentially Ostberg. But as Toksport now has a driver with Rally1 experience (Lindholm) who can be considered as a reliable driver for Rally2, they don’t need anymore Mikkelsen whose WRC experience was hiding a bit the quality of the car in winning. As Mikkelsen doesn’t want to pay to drive, they know the risk is very low to see him as a competitor in 2023. Only risk Skoda takes in my opinion, now that Mikkelsen has missed Rally1 opportunity, is that Mikkelsen is hired by Toyota to help to develop the Rally2 car (if his Skoda contract was not including a non-competition clause, which is possible though because Mikkelsen had some early exit option to join Rally1 so probably there were some counterparts).
It is just an hypothesis but it’s how I see what happened between Skoda and Mikkelsen and I think the Hyundai stuff is not really linked with it (we know for a couple of months about Hyundai having cheated Mikkelsen so Skoda could have took him back).

I digress on Skoda having reliable drivers now. Lindholm was first in the finish of a single rally this year and even there he wasn't fastest. Had fancy moments both in Spain and Japan when he "just" had to drive to finish. He only beat Mikkelsen who effectively had 2 less rallies by a few points and could have also lost to Kajo.
Solberg has similarly only been fastest Rally2 at the finish of a WRC rally once.

Suninen and Rossel are a real and tough competition. Maybe Paddon as well if he gets a program.

So Skoda could risk not winning the title with a new car, something I am quite sure they aim for. On top of that they also potentially risk him going to Toyota to develop the new car.

[skarderud]

Yes, if Toyota ends up with Mikkelsen develop theire Rally2, that was probably not in Skodas plans.
Give him some Rally1 drives too, to keep him warm.

Sent fra min SM-S901B via Tapatalk

[dimviii]

NEUVILLE ENTERS RACE OF CHAMPIONS FOR FIRST TIME
HYUNDAI'S WRC LEADER WILL TAKE PART IN THE ICE AND SNOW EVENT NEXT YEAR

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/neuvi...or-first-time/

[RS]

But as Toksport now has a driver with Rally1 experience (Lindholm) who can be considered as a reliable driver for Rally2..

You mean Solberg?

[wyler]

from ita and french media, delocour was supposed to contest monte with puma, but car is no more available.

info come from a social post directly from delecour, that was cancelled soon after, so maybe there's still hope?

supposed livery in the article:
https://www.rallye-sport.fr/f-deleco...u-monte-carlo/

[AMSS]

Yes, if Toyota ends up with Mikkelsen develop theire Rally2, that was probably not in Skodas plans.
Give him some Rally1 drives too, to keep him warm.

Sent fra min SM-S901B via Tapatalk

According to Finnish Magazine Vauhdin Maailma reigning Finnish Champion Mikko Heikkilä has been hired to do the development testing for Toyota Rally 2

[Danny0405]

According to Finnish Magazine Vauhdin Maailma reigning Finnish Champion Mikko Heikkilä has been hired to do the development testing for Toyota Rally 2

Good driver with some good speed, not too much works-oriented (to avoid VW mistake of a too complex car for common client), we can understand the pros of taking a local one but his experience in Rally2 is not that big (3 years and around 30 rallies, still reasonable) and over all, his experience outside Finland (and a couple of Baltic rallies) is extremely weak (less than 5 rallies with no big result).

Probably they will try to target a lot the Nordic countries but they should at least hire a Central Europa or Southern Europa counterpart (especially about tarmac) to have a more versatile vision and there are some interesting drivers not linked to any brand today and with some good Rally2/R5 experience (Nil Solans or Eric Camilli for example); it’s what Skoda did for example with a variety of drivers taken in the test (Mikkelsen, Lindholm) even if they had for sure one lead test driver (Meeke).

[Sulland]

According to Finnish Magazine Vauhdin Maailma reigning Finnish Champion Mikko Heikkilä has been hired to do the development testing for Toyota Rally 2

Toyota need more than one for that job, and one that knows the newest Skoda Rally2 as well.