Duval will drive Galli's Stobart Ford in New Zealand.
Latvala will drive Galli's Stobart Ford in Catalonia and Corsica.
Duval will Drive Latvala's Abu Dhabi Ford in Catalonia and Corsica.

I always thought Duval deserved another chance in a works team.
Does Latvala deserve his punishement for all his recent mistakes?

Has he been crahsing out a lot or just off the pace?

Crashing in Finland due to driving too fast.
Off road in Germany due to crappy notes.

Latvala actually reminds me of Duval when he was trying to keep up with Loeb.

According to the autosport news this switch is because Ford wants to win the constructor title.

It's the second time this year that Ford makes a controversial decision for a short term gain. The risk is that they might lose everything in the progress for their short, mid and long term gains. I don't think it's worth it as it reeks of deeper trouble within the team.

In any case it's an admission that they took Latvala on board too early. And this isn't good for Latvala. Ford possibly damaging a drivers career. Happened within their F1 team too. Can't say that I am fond of Ford's WRC team management.

I think I read somewhere that Latvala crashed in two consecutive rallies because of inadequate notes. And those weren't his only rally-ruining crashes/accidents, so it's fair to say he's made more than his share of stupid, unnecessary and - above all - unforced errors in situations where bringing the car home in one piece is of great importance. Small wonder the boss is flying off the handle...

I think this is a rap around the knuckles for Latvala from Malcolm Wilson.

He doesnt sound best pleased about the young Finns tendency of making silly mistakes without showing that much speed.

Ari Vatanen he is not therefore not much slack will be cut.

Then again Duval has also been unceremoniously dumped at some stage..Was it by Peugeot or Ford?

I think (hope) that this is more a better way to win the WCC than a punishment. It's great for Duval but needn't mean too much for Latvala's career as long as he doesn't let it get to him.
It was probably too early for him but they needed someone to replace Marcus and didn't want him to get away.

Citroën replaced him with Sainz for a couple of rallies, and uncertainty over a team's future has twice left him without a drive, first at Ford, then Citroën.

I see Suzuki might be taking a sabbatical: rallybuzz

Ford should have put Duval in Al Qasimi's (or whatever the name of the driver from Abu Dhabi) car and nominate him to score Manufacturer's points... Instead, they made a mistake, at least in my opinion. A shame Loeb is so much better than his opposition... What's even worse, it looks like Ford is on the verge of quitting WRC at the end of the year, as they seem to be discontent with the way the FIA run the championship (no promoter, an absence of a worthy TV deal etc).

I can't see the problem personally, all the fastest rally drivers, drive "up" to the point at which they reach and go over their limit. Past examples, a young, but amazingly fast Ari Vatanen in the works Escort RS1800, a young Marku Alen, again in RS1800 (crashed in the early stages of the '73 R.A.C Rally and fought back up to 3rd position o/a at the finish )and even super fast Colin McRae. I thought that Malcom Wilson would have considered it differently, especially as he came from a drivers background (and had a fair amount of accidents, no criticism intended). The works Saab 96s (as driven by Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund), reckoned they had not got up to speed UNTIL they had been on the roof at least once! Having seen these guys before, it added to the excitement,they perfected the 30 second roll and the mechanics from Trollhatan had the cars as good as new at the finish! That was World Rallying then and so much the better for it IMHO.