WRC Driver Line-Up 2006

[lukeh]

I think the Driver line up is starting to take place. Hirvonnen has just sighned a three year contract with Ford and Chris Atkinson has sighned to drive for Subaru in 2006.

Subaru: Petter Sohlberg/Chris Atkinson/Stephan Sarazin?
Ford: Marcus Gronholm/Mikko Hirvonen
Mitisubishi: Harri Rvenpera/Gigi Gali
Peugeot: -
Citroen (Private) Sebastion Loeb/Xavier Pons/Francious Duval
Skoda?: Colin Mcrae/Jan Kopecky?

There may be a chance of Susiki to enter in the Future and Citroen will return in 2007.

[netburner]

Subaru: Petter Solberg/Chris Atkinson/Stephane Sarrazin
Ford: Marcus Grönholm/Mikko Hirvonen/Toni Gardemeister?/Markko Märtin?
Mitsubishi: Harri Rovanpera/Gigi Galli
Citroen (Private) Sebastien Loeb/Xavier Pons?/Francious Duval?/Manfred Stohl?
Skoda?: Colin Mcrae/Jan Kopecky?

There may will be a privat Peugeot team (Bozian of course)...

[lukeh]

Who do you think will have the best chance at the manufactures title next year?

[netburner]

Difficult question...

On one hand there are three manufacturers with new cars (I hope Mitsubishi will show their new car at the Essen Motor Show at the end of this week, Subaru showed the car in Frankfurt and Ford already raced their new Focus in Australia). Hopefully also Skoda will join the club and bring a new Evolution of their Fabia.

On the other hand there is the Semi-works Citroen-team Kronos, which will get a new developed Xsara from Citroen (no automatic diff-locks, only manual ones and some kind of engine tuning)... And we all know that Seb Loeb is one of the best drivers around, so it might be a very interesting season

[spi-ti-tout]

Mitsubishi still have Panizzi...

[forza_autodelta]

what Gardemeister will do next year ?I thought Ford would engage three cars

[netburner]

Originally Posted by spi-ti-tout

Mitsubishi still have Panizzi...

...maybe, but he wasn't sure if he would like to drive on... I think Rovanpera was much better this year (we won't talk about Galli ) and Panizzi was way behind him...

[Evil Ewok]

Good deal on not talking about Galli (sorry husni ). Rovanperra I think did a great job this year, I'll be watching him next year.

[spi-ti-tout]

Originally Posted by netburner

I think Rovanpera was much better this year (we won't talk about Galli ) and Panizzi was way behind him...

The year was a bit if a screwup for the brothers, actually.

You're very very mistaken in saying that Rovanpera was much better than him this year. I'll tell you what happened. For one, Gilles is a tarmac-specialist and himself acknowledges that him and Herve off-road will be nothing special. So Mitsubishi was keeping him for three of four tarmac rallys of the season, and he wanted to participate in an off-road one too (Japan). Now just taking that into consideration, he was hardly visible the whole year, but when he came into a car which was still being 60% developed on the inside, he got 3rd. Then other two, unfortunately, was a stroke of bad luck, as the Evo's engine ECU died in France. Looking at Rovanpera, Pera has been active nearly the whole season so to compare them both would be very unfair and does not mean in anyway that Panizzi is behind the mark, if it was not his fault. Nevertheless, Rovanpera did do a really good job this year.

Originally Posted by EE

Good deal on not talking about Galli (sorry husni ).

I still don't get it....why?

[netburner]

I won't compare them about the complete season, just about the few rallies where we could see them both in their cars. And compared to Gigi he is even worse than compared to Harri, just that Gigi made some stupid mistakes.

[Mustang]

when gigi is on tarmac he is amazing to watch, he is also getting alot better on other surfaces too...save link as see

anyways i think that he is actually better than panizzi

Harri is definitely gone up in my books this year

[spi-ti-tout]

Originally Posted by netburner

I won't compare them about the complete season, just about the few rallies where we could see them both in their cars. And compared to Gigi he is even worse than compared to Harri, just that Gigi made some stupid mistakes.

You just don't get it, do you?

To make it simple, here are the six rallyes that the Panizzi's took part in this year -

Monte Carlo - 3rd Position, in a car that was still under development and testing
Mexico - 8th, three tyre punctures. Off-road.
Cyprus - 11th, transmission and engine problems. Off-road.
Japan - 11th, Off-road.
France - Engine ECU
Spain - Engine ECU

You cannot judge him on the off-road rallyes with Rovanpera or Galli because he himself has already said that he is rubbish there, and entered just for points while Galli took a first-year experience. So technically, yes, they are better in one field. But his true home remains on tarmac, with which he did superb with the one chance that he had. And you cannot judge them in the rallyes which he didn't complete because it was not his fault. So once again, they cannot really be compared. But if you do, looking at MC, Panizzi still kicks ass.

[netburner]

OK, you have your oppinion, I have mine

We will see in next season who will kick which ass

Btw: only 38 days until Paris-Dakar Motorsport season 2006 is coming

[spi-ti-tout]

Originally Posted by netburner

OK, you have your oppinion, I have mine

We will see in next season who will kick which ass

Btw: only 38 days until Paris-Dakar Motorsport season 2006 is coming

Again you missed my point

I was NOT talking about opinion, I was just commenting on what you said, and I agree that we both have our own thoughts.

You were comparing the Panizzi duo to Harri Rovanpera and Gianluigi Galli. I simply stated that they could NOT be compared because of the mentioned reasons. It's like saying apples taste a whole lot better than oranges just because there are 16 apples and 1 orange. AND THAT if you still wanted to compare them on the one rally that Panizzi really did, Panizzi was far ahead.

Anyways...I anticipate both...

[lukeh]

I know this is off the subject, but where can I find some good WRC videos on the net?