M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[AndyRAC]

The criticism is nothing compared to major sports.....

[er88]

Once again this is Rich deflecting. Pointing at all the other teams problems is fine, but it comes across like his head is in the sand and he's in denial. The car isn't good enough, Tanak isn't happy whatsoever, reliability hasn't been good since the cars inception and there have been no real signs of improvement on that for a year and half.
Tanak can't get anywhere near 100% as even at 90% he's having to nurse problems, and that's before we get to the setup and performance development which he isn't happy with either. .
You see Serderitis crawling through stages and the car still breaks, which conveniently Rich Millener overlooked in that interview I noticed. It's not a witch hunt but focus on your own team and car Rich, and let the other teams deal with their issues. WRC journos and press are a lot kinder than F1 and other sports in general, due to wrc+ and even dirtfish being pally with the teams and drivers.

[seb_sh]

Useless blabber. Did anyone make a tally of actual technical issues? Maybe we should do an actual count and then we'll see if Malcolm's spokesperson has a point or not.

[macebig]

It may be better for WRC's future if M-Sport and Ford call it a day for a while. It will probably end Rally 1 on the spot and force everyone to sit down and talk about a realistic plan for the following years, instead of the useless crap we're listening now about even more expensive cars that aren't gonna do anything to widen WRC's appeal.

[becher]

Once again this is Rich deflecting. Pointing at all the other teams problems is fine, but it comes across like his head is in the sand and he's in denial. The car isn't good enough, Tanak isn't happy whatsoever, reliability hasn't been good since the cars inception and there have been no real signs of improvement on that for a year and half.
Tanak can't get anywhere near 100% as even at 90% he's having to nurse problems, and that's before we get to the setup and performance development which he isn't happy with either. .
You see Serderitis crawling through stages and the car still breaks, which conveniently Rich Millener overlooked in that interview I noticed. It's not a witch hunt but focus on your own team and car Rich, and let the other teams deal with their issues. WRC journos and press are a lot kinder than F1 and other sports in general, due to wrc+ and even dirtfish being pally with the teams and drivers.

The tone in F1 shifted to "everyone is great" since Liberty took over and online only magazines started to take over the market. It still a huge problem in rallying, but it's no longer alone with this.

[mknight]

The only positive thing at MSport the last 4 years has been Loeb starts.

Starts of everyone else turned bad sooner or later:
Lappi, Suninen, Greensmith, Fourmaux, Breen, Loubet, Tanak, (and Huttunen in his one start).

Yep at this point it might be better for MSport to just leave Rally1. It might force FIA to change the rules and/or work harder to get new real manus and not just half-teams.

[bluuford]

If you try to remember what happened in Kenya with Serderidis, it was that muddy stage. He hit the tree and that damaged the car. Every following problem was originating from this. I would say that reliability in Kenya for M-Sport for me was surprisingly good. Rich is right on that one. It was far-far better than Hyundai.

[Jarek Z]

The only positive thing at MSport the last 4 years has been Loeb starts.

Starts of everyone else turned bad sooner or later:
Lappi, Suninen, Greensmith, Fourmaux, Breen, Loubet, Tanak, (and Huttunen in his one start).

Oh come on! Apart from Tanak, most of them are just not good enough drivers. Have they performed better at any other team?

[meh]

Oh come on! Apart from Tanak, most of them are just not good enough drivers. Have they performed better at any other team?

I think Lappi as a driver is good, but is it just now or was he also back then, I'm not sure.

I would add, that probably most of them lack technical knowledge how to build or improve the car (compared to Tänak).

In general I think Tänak has set the tone with his critical comments towards team - some of them have really good arguments, some I think should be not be said. Now there is already strong momentum of the "knowledge" that M-Sport is not reliable, is not fast, is behind etc. Even commentators in All-Live kind of follow that message.

It was like that when Tänak was in Toyota, it was like that when Tänak was in Hyundai, it is like that now. For me it seems that Tänak is not that critical anymore with his public statements, maybe there have not been "good" reasons. But there is still this momentum going for some time.

[seb_sh]

Suggestion for Millener: instead of complaining on Dirtfish, getting some good results in the bag will quickly change the narrative.