2023 WRC News & Rumours

rp · 16th December 2022, 10:15

Originally Posted by Danny0405

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 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).

Juho Hänninen is their main test driver and almost sure that also Toyota´s Rally1 drivers will drive some testing. Still have to say that Mikkelsen or Huttunen would have been better than Heikkilä, because he is lacking the experience.

**AMSS** · 16th December 2022, 10:20

Originally Posted by rp

Juho Hänninen is their main test driver and almost sure that also Toyota´s Rally1 drivers will drive some testing. Still have to say that Mikkelsen or Huttunen would have been better than Heikkilä, because he is lacking the experience.

Well it didn`t state that he was the only one hired for testing, just that he was hired. So they can hire 10 more as well if they want

rp · 16th December 2022, 10:26

Originally Posted by AMSS

Well it didn`t state that he was the only one hired for testing, just that he was hired. So they can hire 10 more as well if they want

That´s true. Also Nikara and Latvala are available from their own staff.

**Danny0405** · 16th December 2022, 10:28

Originally Posted by rp

Juho Hänninen is their main test driver and almost sure that also Toyota´s Rally1 drivers will drive some testing. Still have to say that Mikkelsen or Huttunen would have been better than Heikkilä, because he is lacking the experience.

I know about Hanninen always making the first job on the new Toyota cars but, even if he has more experience, he is now too much outdated to be alone to do the job (2 years since his last drive, 5 years since his last serious campaign and 10 years since his last RC2 drive).
It’s a bit like Meeke (and even worse), he can be in the process, he can make the very first tests after producing the test car but they need some current drivers to help to the development and give an opinion compared with current cars in race conditions. It’s what Skoda did with Mikkelsen and Lindholm.

About other names than Heikkila, issue may be about the contracts for the Skoda drivers; Lindholm is probably backed by Skoda, even partially, this year so impossible to hire him now; and for Mikkelsen and Meeke, to be seen if they have not signed a non-competition clause or stuff like that forbidding them to do the same job for another brand during 1 or 2 years maybe?
And Huttunen, well, his last experiences in development were not that convincing even if, yeah, he is more versatile so he would have been more interesting.
And as said above, Toyota may hire at least one other guy to complete the view on it.

**ouvreur** · 16th December 2022, 12:09

Originally Posted by Danny0405

I know about Hanninen always making the first job on the new Toyota cars but, even if he has more experience, he is now too much outdated to be alone to do the job (2 years since his last drive, 5 years since his last serious campaign and 10 years since his last RC2 drive).
It’s a bit like Meeke (and even worse), he can be in the process, he can make the very first tests after producing the test car but they need some current drivers to help to the development and give an opinion compared with current cars in race conditions. It’s what Skoda did with Mikkelsen and Lindholm.

While it makes sense to get a few different opinions, and it doesn't hurt to have current competitors / the next bright young thing driving your test car, what you're saying about Hanninen being 'outdated' is (and I'm trying to be polite here) absolute garbage.

In fact, the best riposte to that is two words: Lasse Lampi. He only ever achieved a single podium at WRC level, but is widely renowned to be one of the greatest test and development drivers of all time.

Did his last full season in 1994, but worked full-time well into the 2020s with WRC teams, either as a test driver, consultant, adviser, test road selector... he's one of the reasons Mitsubishi / Makinen won as much as they did.

A lack of recent competitive experience does not mean a driver can't test and develop a car properly. Having a lot of recent competitive experience does not mean a driver CAN test and develop a car properly (cough Citroen C3 WRC cough).

And last point - some manufacturers spend too much time worrying about what their competitors cars can or can't do, what their opposition is or isn't doing, rather than concentrating on just making the best damn car they're capable of. I expect Toyota won't fall into that trap.

**Danny0405** · 16th December 2022, 12:29

Originally Posted by ouvreur

While it makes sense to get a few different opinions, and it doesn't hurt to have current competitors / the next bright young thing driving your test car, what you're saying about Hanninen being 'outdated' is (and I'm trying to be polite here) absolute garbage.

I stay totally on my position; a driver with good experience but outside of the game since too long can make the beginning development job and a lot of mileage but you absolutely need an updated driver in the final year phase of the development to have a comparison against competition with a clear updated user-oriented view.
And you can say whatever you want about ‘garbage stuff’, all the teams that work correctly work like this; take M-Sport for example: Matthew Wilson is their equivalent of Lampi for the beginning work but they always then puts another updated driver to test it at the same place (Tanak in 2016; Fourmaux in 2021).
Toyota in Rally1 same stuff: Hanninen made the beginning job last year and then, through half-season, Evans and Rovanpera began their tests.
Skoda: Meeke makes the development but then, they take Mikkelsen and Lindholm in addition.

It’s always like this and it’s logical: a driver in competition cannot free his calendar to make enough mileage to
So the teams hire a driver available with no competition to make this work and this mileage first:
- Hanninen in 2013 for Hyundai and 2015 for Toyota
- Meeke for Skoda last 2 years
- Matthew Wilson historically for M-Sport
- ...

And then in the final phase when you are needing the details, you take some other drivers more updated to test:
- your own drivers for RC1 team
- Mikkelsen and Lindholm for Skoda
- ...

And when you don’t, you’re often forced to hire a new one after 6 months of competition because the car is not developed enough: it’s what happened to Citroen to hire Ostberg and to Hyundai to hire Suninen.

I’m not saying Hanninen is useless; I’m saying you cannot develop a 2024 client-oriented car to compete Fabia RS with just Hanninen. To sum up, he can do 90% of the job but you absolutely need someone else to take the 10% that makes the difference with the other cars.
And it’s even more important for a client-oriented car because you must have some people thinking as a client and not as a professional driver.