Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
Reading the usual after-event Dirtfish articles I am slightly perplexed by the Katsuta and Fourmaux praise levels.

Yes they did great, I commented on Fourmaux especially during the event for his great approach for this kind of rally and on Katsuta for his development process.

But the reality is that no matter how well they did relative to their experience Katsuta was only faster than Greensmith and Fourmaux on speed and Fourmaux was the slowest WRC (after the deserved penalty).

With "normal" retirement rate this would put them on 5-6th place for Katsuta and 7-8 for Fourmaux.

Again great job here and great approach but just about all WRC rallies are won on speed and not due to retirements of others. Therefore I find it really strange when Dirtfish talk about winning a rally next for Katsuta and making him Toyota factory driver and about making Fourmaux MSport #1 next year.
Rich Millener said if he was running Toyota, he wouldn't look outwith Toyota's current drivers for next years lineup. Either Ogier does a full season, or on the events he doesn't do, just promote Taka to pts scorer.

So clearly he rates Taka, or maybe it says more about what he thinks of Lappi/ Suninen/ Mikkelsen or any other drivers that are available. Which could hint worryingly towards Msport running Fourmaux and Greensmith as two of their 3 drivers for next year (nothing against Fourmaux)