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was_tansu_now_badhedgehogAs I thought, as I thought...
Ford rally team boss Malcolm Wilson would not have been content to see Marcus, who is currently retained by Ford as a brand ambassador, going to Subaru next season. With Marcus confirming an offer on the table from Subaru, Malcolm has had to quickly intensify his negotiations with Marcus. Earlier this week there was apparently a lot of discussion between them, and now Bosse has two offers to choose between.
With each new increment of information always seeming to point towards a return to competition, I think that Marcus will pick one of the two offers, rather than neither. One day he will have to retire from rallying for good, and then he will have plenty of time to manage his farm and his shopping centre. I think that he has realised that he retired too soon - the words of codriver Timo Rautiainen seem to confirm this (asked if he missed rallying he said "not as much as my ex-chauffeur, but if he'll be back, I'll be back").
I really hope that the FIA see fit to change the start order regulation back to how it was (on the 1st day cars started in current championship standings order, leader first, then on the 2nd and 3rd day the top 15 WRC cars in the event started in reverse order - this year it's been leader starts first all three days), because a) while the tactics used this season were entertaining the first time around, it has been boring to see final day start order being manufactured almost every single time and b) if this did end up standing in the way of a true legend's return to the sport, it would be stupid.
I can't explain to you meagre few who have bothered to click on the lj cut justhow much it would mean to fans for Marcus to be back competing again. First of all, he is one of the best drivers ever seen, and the only one who really competes absolutely head to head with Sébastien Loeb (Hirvonen and Latvala have it in them to compete, but Hirvonen needs to be faster and Latvala needs to have fewer offs.). Secondly, Marcus and Timo are really two of the best characters on the circuit, and rally fans everywhere have really missed Marcus' laconic end of stage interviews. All sports have journeymen, stars, and true legends*. Marcus Grönholm is a true legend.
Now if Father Christmas can sort out a drive for Henning Solberg next year, we'll all be happy. I'd ask after Toni Gardemeister's chances as well, given that Suzuki don't look like staying in the championship, but I don't want to push my luck with Santa.
*for example, in football Cristiano Ronaldo is a star, but Matt Le Tissier is a legend.
Ford rally team boss Malcolm Wilson would not have been content to see Marcus, who is currently retained by Ford as a brand ambassador, going to Subaru next season. With Marcus confirming an offer on the table from Subaru, Malcolm has had to quickly intensify his negotiations with Marcus. Earlier this week there was apparently a lot of discussion between them, and now Bosse has two offers to choose between.
With each new increment of information always seeming to point towards a return to competition, I think that Marcus will pick one of the two offers, rather than neither. One day he will have to retire from rallying for good, and then he will have plenty of time to manage his farm and his shopping centre. I think that he has realised that he retired too soon - the words of codriver Timo Rautiainen seem to confirm this (asked if he missed rallying he said "not as much as my ex-chauffeur, but if he'll be back, I'll be back").
I really hope that the FIA see fit to change the start order regulation back to how it was (on the 1st day cars started in current championship standings order, leader first, then on the 2nd and 3rd day the top 15 WRC cars in the event started in reverse order - this year it's been leader starts first all three days), because a) while the tactics used this season were entertaining the first time around, it has been boring to see final day start order being manufactured almost every single time and b) if this did end up standing in the way of a true legend's return to the sport, it would be stupid.
I can't explain to you meagre few who have bothered to click on the lj cut justhow much it would mean to fans for Marcus to be back competing again. First of all, he is one of the best drivers ever seen, and the only one who really competes absolutely head to head with Sébastien Loeb (Hirvonen and Latvala have it in them to compete, but Hirvonen needs to be faster and Latvala needs to have fewer offs.). Secondly, Marcus and Timo are really two of the best characters on the circuit, and rally fans everywhere have really missed Marcus' laconic end of stage interviews. All sports have journeymen, stars, and true legends*. Marcus Grönholm is a true legend.
Now if Father Christmas can sort out a drive for Henning Solberg next year, we'll all be happy. I'd ask after Toni Gardemeister's chances as well, given that Suzuki don't look like staying in the championship, but I don't want to push my luck with Santa.
*for example, in football Cristiano Ronaldo is a star, but Matt Le Tissier is a legend.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-12 05:02 pm (UTC)WRC cars (Group A) are very expensive. The FIA have wanted to change the homologation so that the cars would actually be based on either the current group N spec or the current S2000 spec, and be able to be converted to whatever the "new" WRC spec is by adding a bolt on kit (turbo, better air intake, better exhaust, faster shifting gearbox with paddle shift, aero package) which would have to cost less than a certain amount of money which I can't remember off hand.
The FIA world motorsport council have just decided on S2000 as the basis for the WRC cars for 2010 onwards. This puts a big spanner in the works of Subaru, because they would have been basing their car on the Group N Impreza and now they will pretty much have to invent a new car...
Suzuki probably won't be competing next year for financial reasons. Which is a shame because this year was their first season as a manufacturer.
There were going to be more M2 teams (manufacturer second string teams, like the current Stobart VK Ford team) in 2009, but it looks like quite a lot of that won't happen. More and more it will be the case that drivers have to sort out their own funding and sponsorship for a season (like Henning Solberg does with his Expert.no sponsorship) or be from a rich family (like Conrad Rautenbach, or Chris Atkinson, I think he pays his seat).
Some of the cost cutting measures we've had have been silly. No gravel crews on loose surface rallies? That's dangerous when there's mud and ice (and next year they intend to not have gravel crews on tarmac rallies either, which is just bloody ridiculous: loose gravel on tarmac = ball bearings). Not having the option of a winter tyre on winter gravel rallies like last weeks rally GB (which I haven't written up, although I tweeted a lot about it) also caused safety problems. And as Seb pointed out with reference to Chris Atkinson's awful crash, it is counterproductive. Not having a safety crew to tell him where the mud was on the stage, and not having the option to make more cuts in the tyre, meant that Atko aquaplaned on the mud in the dark, rolled it 6 times and totally and completely wrecked the car. A wrecked WRC car against the cost of employing a gravel crew is false economy.
The FIA tends to neglect rallying and touring car championships and then, especially in the case of rallying, enact rule changes that don't actually help.