2471 replies to this topic

[FlatOverCrest]

Thanks FlatOverCrest
Who do you think will be the other driver in VW? Is there any chance Petter would manage to get the seat?

Here are two articles from TS, they confirm what you said, FOC

My pleasure Wolfie.. I think the only way M-sport keeps its funding from Ford, is if they can convince Ford that they have a genuine chance of the manufacturers title next year. In order to do that, they simply cannot risk a young gun alongside JML... So I think it is time for Petter and Malcolm to be locked in a room together, to sort out whatever 'issues' need to be resolved and for Petter to become JML's new team-mate for next year. He is a former world champion, he is solid... and on his day, in the right car... can still have the chance of a win....

As to VW, I think they owe it to Hanninen to give him the chance in the 2nd VW seat, with Mikkelsen in development, should Hanninen not live up to expectation....

[FlatOverCrest]

Can it get any worse for the WRC??? Who was responsible for selecting these fine upstanding partners for the series? Will we know?...of course not...simply more crap to sweep under the carpet!!

http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/96413

All we need is for Ford to announce they are pulling out...Mini to announce they cannot do the full year due to lack of funds..... then finally we may get rid of the mis-managers of this series, giving it to a group with a fresh approach...

"Doing a good job my arse!!!"

Edited by FlatOverCrest, 24 November 2011 - 02:13.

[ArnageWRC]

Can it get any worse for the WRC??? Who was responsible for selecting these fine upstanding partners for the series? Will we know?...of course not...simply more crap to sweep under the carpet!!

http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/96413

All we need is for Ford to announce they are pulling out...Mini to announce they cannot do the full year due to lack of funds..... then finally we may get rid of the mis-managers of this series, giving it to a group with a fresh approach...
"Doing a good job my arse!!!"

If the series was in rude health, there wouldn't be any doubt about their futures - they'd be in, and with funding.
I'll be optimistic when more Manufacturers, big money sponsors are joining....& a decent media profile.

While RallyGB seemed to get a decent write up (except from the Team bosses), it still didn't really generate much interest from the general Motorsport fan, and car forum/websites. More work needed on promotion.....

[FlatOverCrest]

Super news for both the IRC and the Circuit of Ireland... with the latters inclusion on next years championship!

http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/96419

[Turini]

The calendar sure looks interesting with quite a few new events. Ireland, San Marino, Romania and Bulgaria, and great they managed to keep Sanremo. Now if there would be appropriate competitor interest it would be nice...

[cheapracer]

while this chap may not be the fastest through the corners...........

WARNING..........PURE RALLY CAR PORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.c...p;v=_onMjruyzd0

You must be tone deaf, that engine is as flat as a tack.

Listen to the difference of how sharp the originals were and also at 1.15 and 2.40 is very rare footage of Rohl's automatic S1 used on the very last Group B rally, the '86 RAC - even faster when he there's no gearchange lag.



Oddly Rohl is considered synomonous with the S1 but he rarely finished with it and came about 20th in the WDC with only a couple of points!

Edited by cheapracer, 24 November 2011 - 18:24.

[Myrvold]

Oh well, on a different note, just discovered a fresh new article here in norway.

Approaching Ford
Both Petter (37) and Henning Solberg (38) is working for a factory ride in Ford for next season.

The wet dream for Norwegian rally fans can finally become a reality. Bot the brothers are in touch with team boss Malcolm Wilson trying to get the second seat beside Finn Jari-Matti Latvala.

Last season, Ford had three cars in the factory team. The main driver Mikko Hirvonen has signed a contract with Citroën for the coming season. That opens a spot for a new top driver.

Also, Volkswagen is a possible solution, but the newly established team will use 2012 to develop a competitive rally car and has already written a three-year contract with the shooting star Sebastien Ogier from Citroen.

Without the full WRC effort and with a young, rising star in the team, it seems that option is not quite as interesting to the younger brother Solberg - although the parties have been at the negotiating table.

The disadvantage of a possible Ford deal is that the world champion from 2003 have buy a place. That can easily cost some ten to twenty millions, and even more..

The third option is to continue with a private team from last year - even though it practically has proven too difficult to win both the World Championships and WRC events that way.

Something of the same Ford-solution can open up to big brother Henning Solberg. If he increases his own contribution by 5-10 million, the 38-year-old can get the third car, which this year has been driven by Arab Khalid Al Qassimi.

The third prize in the season finale increased opportunity for just that.

- I'm working for the second or third car in the Ford. With even better position in the team, I will get greater priority and more test run. I'm glad I got it through this season without any priority or any tests at all, says Henning Solberg.

For the third consecutive year the duo show off for tens of thousands of spectators inside the Fornebu with Solberg Extreme Motor Show this Saturday afternoon.

Finnish Latvala have to cancel due to test drives, but Kris Meek, Mads and especially IRC champion Andreas Mikkelsen will make it to the show with the Solberg brothers.

That was a very quick translate of that news, guess there are some bad translation ;)

[artista]

According to the German media, Antonov has already been arrested.

[DracoN]

According to the German media, Antonov has already been arrested.

.. and released on bail

[noikeee]

Super news for both the IRC and the Circuit of Ireland... with the latters inclusion on next years championship!

http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/96419

Annoying not to see the Rally Vinho da Madeira there again (as everyone already knew since many months ago)... I wonder how long it'll take for us to get the big international rally stars here again We're completely broke so probably not anytime soon...

[FlatOverCrest]

I would also like to see Rally Norway, kick the whole IRC season off.... would be good to have a snow rally on the IRC!

[Myrvold]

No chance in living **** m8.
The only chance would've been if they merged "Rally Elverum" and "Rally Finnskog" (a former ERC round), but that is kinda unlikely at the moment.

Anyway, Rally Norway didn't make anywhere near the money it costed to host the rally. They lost 2.5 million EUR in 07, and a bit over one million in 09. That might not sound that much, but in Norway it's hard to get that money for motorsport. After all we are a country that loves skiing, and motorsport is not anywhere near that. That was the reason why they didn't even try to get a WRC round for 2012, the money just ain't there.

In 2009 they had control on the expenses, but the world championship in Biathlon was at the same time, and with minus 30 degrees, it wasn't enough people out there watching rally. And well, I worked at the service area both years, as a scrutineer/safety in 07, and just safety in 09 and I must say that the 07 round made me extremely proud, the 09 round was embarrasing, it looked like they had tried to save money everywhere. The service area was in the "viking ship". And while they made it extremely good in 07, with TV-coverage, rallyradio over the speakers, lot's of shops and people. In 09 there wasn't even a place where you could see the results (and this is in a place that hosts skating each year, so it is lots of result-boards there, but they didn't even use them). It was a sad sight, and to be honest, if that was the way we had to do it to not loose too much money, it isn't worth it. The 2007 event was much better in every single way.

[pRy]

Rossi car skills:

[alfista]

http://plus.autospor...-season-review/
Sorry if I annoy somebody but is the author of that piece (David Evans) working for Autosport or Ford PR-division?
Is he being serious writing "to see such an erudite young fella on the sidelines would be a waste" about Matt Wilson?
Does he mean points gifted by JML in Australia, France and Spain when writing "Mikko Hirvonen has demonstrated almost as much championship consistency as Loeb recently"?
Sorry, but IMHO this is an utterly skewed view onto the real balance of power. The only thing missing was shouting about Khalid Al-Qassimi as a future star.
It would be OK to read all this crap in a press-release by Ford but makes me wonder in an "independent" magazine.

[kosmic33]

http://plus.autospor...-season-review/
Sorry if I annoy somebody but is the author of that piece (David Evans) working for Autosport or Ford PR-division?
Is he being serious writing "to see such an erudite young fella on the sidelines would be a waste" about Matt Wilson?
Does he mean points gifted by JML in Australia, France and Spain when writing "Mikko Hirvonen has demonstrated almost as much championship consistency as Loeb recently"?
Sorry, but IMHO this is an utterly skewed view onto the real balance of power. The only thing missing was shouting about Khalid Al-Qassimi as a future star.
It would be OK to read all this crap in a press-release by Ford but makes me wonder in an "independent" magazine.

Strange too because I always thought autosports sister magazine motorsport news did fords pr........

[ArnageWRC]

You're not the first person to have mentioned that.



Anyway - seeing as SkySports have announced that they will have a dedicated F1 HD channel from March - is there anything more which shows the MASSIVE gulf between F1 & every other Motorsport. And just how shambolic the WRC is run/promoted. I believe it was reported on Twitter that the TV figures from BARB for the UK have been released, and the Live GoldenStage in Cyprus got 109,000 viewers, whereas the Live Power Stage on RallyGB got 17,000 viewers.....

oh dear......a rethink on TV rights please. And quickly..

[FlatOverCrest]

http://plus.autospor...-season-review/
Sorry if I annoy somebody but is the author of that piece (David Evans) working for Autosport or Ford PR-division?
Is he being serious writing "to see such an erudite young fella on the sidelines would be a waste" about Matt Wilson?
Does he mean points gifted by JML in Australia, France and Spain when writing "Mikko Hirvonen has demonstrated almost as much championship consistency as Loeb recently"?
Sorry, but IMHO this is an utterly skewed view onto the real balance of power. The only thing missing was shouting about Khalid Al-Qassimi as a future star.
It would be OK to read all this crap in a press-release by Ford but makes me wonder in an "independent" magazine.

While David is a very nice guy.... it has been YEARS, since he wrote an unbiased/neutral/questioning piece with regards the WRC. It's a great shame as he is not the PR point man for the WRC, but meant to be a journalist, however there are two pimary types of reporter....

Journalism has developed a variety of ethics and standards. While objectivity and a lack of bias are often considered important, some types of journalism, such as advocacy journalism, intentionally adopt a non-objective viewpoint.

David has long been an 'advocate reporter' with regards the WRC.

I full agree with your view Alfista, its long past time that Autosport actually started producing some articles with some teeth...instead of the "2011 has produced one of the most thrilling championships the WRC has seen..." utter BS...that has been spouted forth recently from various NOS supportive outlets.

Not a single person can deny the sheer volume of content around the Internet, on Twitter and other media outlets, that makes it perfectly clear what most people thought of this years championship. Had Mikko not been gifted points and had Citroen not had a few engine gremlins... it would not have even been funny at how poor this season was.

Yes VW is coming....'hopefully' Mini has the budget to do the entire season next year.... but everyone knows.... if VW come with a huge budget and blow everyone else into the trees...Ford won't stick around, Mini has raised the profile of the 'Countryman' possibly enough to consider bailing.... and we all know what the French manufacturers do when they are getting beaten! "hisser le drapeau blanc"!!

But with a considerable number of young talented rally drivers all sitting in the wings, with no where to go, it truly makes a mockery of David Evans view that it would be a shame for Matt to have to step aside!

With that...I say goodbye to the rally season in 2011 and this thread...and look forward to discussing the up-coming season for 2012 in the new thread...Monte Carlo is not far away!!!

Edited by FlatOverCrest, 27 November 2011 - 21:45.

[AyrtonSauna]

Unfortunately the dream of Ogier and Latvala didn't come true and it really seems like Tänak is replacing Hirvo. 2013 will be an interesting season, if Mini can just jump in and take podiums then what can VW do?

Wonder if Citroen will ever regret taking Ogier too soon into their factory team? Now they lost him for good.

Yeah unfortunately Our Dream Team of JML and Seb OJ didn't materialise You can't Blame OJ though as he is one cunning Rallying talent that is sacrificing a whole year of competiton to be part of the pioneering VW force in WRC and knows that Ford have less commitment.I'll miss OJ alot next year! Atleast we have Mini commiting to add interest,But imagine if Latvala breaks his contract with Ford due to uncertainty about their future and commitment to the Sport and he's recruited by Sainz and VW to form the Super dream team along with OJ! The way things are going,I wouldn't dismiss that as an unlikely possibility....
Yeah I think OJ will never go back to Citroen with the Massive backing VW are giving him and his own investment into the team sacrificing a whole year of competition with an eye to many future years of glory.He doesn't give a damn about representing his National team which is another reason I like him! Hardcore Talented Rally Driver!

Never believe in circumstances Nicole!.All is good

[evo]

OJ??? Simpson? Orange Juice?

At this rate, I'm surprised you didn't call JML "Jamal".

Sorry if this offends you, it's just as weird as the commentators calling Bourdais "Sea Bass"

[AyrtonSauna]

OJ??? Simpson? Orange Juice?

At this rate, I'm surprised you didn't call JML "Jamal".

Sorry if this offends you, it's just as weird as the commentators calling Bourdais "Sea Bass"

Nothing offends me on these forums as I don't have the capacity to take any forums too seriously so no worries as they say down under!
orange juice
Big deal that I call him OJ!

[hotstickyslick]

Convers Sports Initiative has gone into administration.

Edited by hotstickyslick, 29 November 2011 - 19:51.

[BRG]

Not good news for Pompey fans.