M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[EstWRC]

There are updates. Chris Williams talked about new parts for aero, engine and other parts but he wasn't too specific, unfortunately.

where did you read that interview btw?

I guess they are/were also waiting Tänaks feedback before going on with the updates

[sinepikohv]

https://www.autohebdo.fr/actualites/...otivation.html

[240RS]

Was Ott Tanak sandbagging through Saturday/Sunday?

That was the question on my mind when he "suddenly" found 19 seconds in 15km on the final stage of the event.

Tanak is obviously an intelligent man. He seemingly worked out he didn't have the package to take on the Toyotas without serious risk and elected to play a percentage game. Saturday afternoon and early Sunday, he must have been cruising waiting to assess the Pumas real potential on the power stage. And register some useful championship points.

Get the feeling he will have worked out the true potential, and based on that, we will either see a bullish positive Ott, or a sulky withdrawn individual in the next event. My suspicion is that it will be the former.

[EstWRC]

He wasn’t sandbagging.

On Saturday he had the power steering problem the whole day apart from first stage.

And on Sunday he just preserved his tires for the PS stage.

And all in all, he just wanted to make sure he gets decent points on the table. Seems the past 3 years with 0 points made him really scared for this event. At least it Seemed so to me

[flat_right]

Was Ott Tanak sandbagging through Saturday/Sunday?

That was the question on my mind when he "suddenly" found 19 seconds in 15km on the final stage of the event.

On Sunday yes, but on Saturday he had a power steering issue. IMHO the times were OKish on Saturday with the issue he had.

But Finnish and Dirtfish "experts" only looked at the times and thought that Tänak was a shadow of himself. Yes, Ford is behind but we have to remember that this was the first rally for him in Puma. On Thursday I think he did really well. Even Kalle said that it was difficult to open the road because of the salty (dusty) tarmac. On Friday, the set up was wrong as the car wasn't racy enough (clearly some understeer). On Saturday he got his set up a bit better but it was hindered by the power steering issue. And on Sunday, he saved his tires for the PS. Overall, I don't think the situation is bad. They are behind and there is work to do but looking at how Hyundai was driving then I think Puma has more potential. At least Tänak said he feels comfortable and now is a matter of set up and getting some updates.

[Eli]

Honestly if M-Sport can eliminate their technical gremlins, then I’m sure it won’t be long until we’ll see Tänak on that top step of the podium. Besides, he always said that the objective was to finish Monte-Carlo with points, it was pretty obvious he wasn’t going to risk it all like he would’ve done back in his Toyota days.

[EstWRC]

Ott Tanak has conceded M-Sport faces “quite a big job” to close the gap to World Rally Championship rivals Toyota and Hyundai, but is confident it can be achieved.

https://www.motorsport.com/wrc/news/...vals/10423675/

[cali]

That mid corner understeer eats up the tires and doesn't give the driver much confidence to push.

Just to remind that this same mid corner understeer took out Adrien and Craig in Ypres in the same corner. Both of them started to correct the input in mid corner and at some point steering was in a full lock but it didn't save them.

Someone here mentioned this in the forum earlier as well that the Puma turns in well but then suddenly loses grip which results in heavy understeer. That's what I'm seeing as well. Chassie and/or suspension modifications needed imho though I'm no engineer

Sent from my DN2103 using Tapatalk

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Strange how happy Loeb was with the Puma in Monte 2022 straight out of the box. And he made literally no set-up changes at all during the rally...

[bandit12]

Loeb is not 9 times world champion because of luck...