16 Burst results for "Craig Breen"
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Yeah, I think if we'd done this, if it was a sort of halfway through the year old sport awards, this would be a much more difficult debate because in qualifying trim at least, the Ferrari has been sensationally fast. Charles Leclerc will end the season with more polls than anyone else. And I'd say at the moment they've got four wins and I would say they probably should have had 7 or 8. Now they have fallen behind the development rate, the RB 18 has been absolutely sensational in the second half of the year, by which time the championship was already slipping away from Ferrari because of the mistakes and problems that we've already talked about many times. But I thought as a basic car, if you think we're Ferrari was two years ago, marred in the midfield. To come out with a car for the new ground effects era that was that competitive right out of the box. You know, fair play to Ferrari, you know, they're design teams have done a great job with that car. It's probably a little bit tricky to drive. You do get impression that the clerk and science have been hanging on to it at times and not always successfully. Whereas the RB 18 obviously was a little bit towards the heavy and understeer east side earlier in the year, which max didn't enjoy particularly, but they've kind of trimmed the weight off it, got it handing and how he likes and Verstappen is obviously he's absolutely on top for me. He's kind of the next guys and he is the current guy now the current benchmark. And he's raffled off the win. Some of them easily, some of them are a bit more difficulty. But obviously I guess the thing in RB 18s favor is it's the most successful age annuity F one car, which given that he's probably got a Hall of Fame of cars that's where he's up there with people like Colin Chapman, isn't he? That's quite something. And the way it has used that power unit and we can't call it Honda, although maybe next year we'll call it Honda. I don't know, but Red Bull powertrains, which they're a really aggressively built out Red Bull powered trains. In a way that McLaren couldn't make that relationship work. And Red Bull have found a way for the British and the Japanese engineers to work together and it's two different cultures. It seems to be a relationship that is going to get closer again. It's a real testament to how Red Bull have a very strong company culture, but aren't so inflexible that they can't work with Honda and make that power train amazing. And then, of course, you've got Mercedes who are leaving formulary, that team becomes McLaren, the people stay wearing papaya. But with Nissan, so really, as you say in your summary, leaving while on top, that Mercedes formula E car, it goes through, it's not a spec series, it goes through fewer changes than other series, though, we're about to start testing in December the third generation cars and racing with them in January, but it's good to have that formula E to choose from that formula E car. Now, let's move on to international rally driver of the year. And I think this is a really, really interesting one because you've got Sebastian Loeb versus Thierry neuville, Callie Robin pair of oita, and I'll be keen to get your thoughts on this, Kev, because although if you are doing this on the outright season, again, it's the Cali Roth in Paris, award, but he's someone who doesn't particularly go out of his way to court social media interest. He's obviously got a lot of followers, and if people follow him, that's great and he loves it. Drivers, he's up against have really big fan bases. And so when we put this to the vote, don't know which way it's going to go. He's definitely had an amazing season though. Tell us about your thoughts on these four drivers. Yeah, I mean, you're right, but I mean, I think he's driving, he's done these talking for him, hasn't he as well. I think he's been absolutely sensational. He's the youngest world champion. He's taken that mantle from Colin mccrea back in 1995, he's been absolutely fantastic. And I guess the one thing that you say against him is that he's not had to be low in OJ. As well. Across the season because they're both doing part time seasons. Reminders have their class in the Monte Carlo rally where they left everyone for dust. And then usually I did that again a few weeks ago. Just to remind everyone that he's still got it, is there anyone who would have been worried about that? As across the WRC season, I think Roman pair was comfortably the strongest performer, no idea it was very good at not quite winning the championship, isn't he? But then to be fair, him and tanak have had to deal with problems in that they were a bit late to the rally one regulations. I think the interesting one in this list in a way is low because he's not done a full WRC campaign, but if you look at other things he's done he's done the international rally raid series where he was second obviously at his Dakar rally campaign as part of that. He's been involved in extremely and won their race of champions. If you're doing the versatile can drive on any surface broad definition of rallying, then he's a legend and he's in the all time greatest debate. But whether you think he's done enough with his kind of bit part campaign versus roven Perry's record breaking one in WRC, I think that could be an interesting part of the vote. And that does segue nicely into our rally car of the year. New regulations, rally one cars arriving with hybrid power. Some got it more right than others. But let's face it, some did it with different levels of resources than others. So the four in this category, the Ford puma rally one car, the Hyundai I 20 N, Toyota's GR, DK R, Hilux, and the Toyota GI rally one car. Now, of course, again, Toyota has been the class there. But when a big manufacturer likes that like that puts its full weight behind something, then it doesn't always happen. We've seen a few disasters and other series, but it tends to pay off. Whereas actually there's some good arguments for why other cars should be in this category. Yeah, well I think let's look at the other ones first. So I think M sport did a great job with the puma right out of the box. It was quick. And a little bit like when they won the championship with auger, how good did that car be with a top line? Because I don't think there are that many championship contending drivers. And that's disrespect to Gus green Smith and Craig breen, whatever. I mean, established championship contenders.
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Obviously, maybe your money's on Thierry with his local knowledge, but he had a sort of overshoot slash half spin on the very first stage. He did it already lost some time there and was semi playing catch up from Friday onwards. And then it looked like elfin was in a commanding position, but both Hyundai's were catching and then you had a transmission issue for 8 ten X so they were all battling and it also is worth noting that both oi and elfin had a slow punctures on the Friday as well. So they were all battling their own issues here. So the impression that you might get that from the outside if you maybe hadn't caught the action and you saw Robin Perez out means tanakh sort of inherited the winners actually almost totally incorrect because each driver really had to battle to be in contention. But saying that by the Saturday afternoon, after a little bit of back and forth and gamesmanship between the two high and died boys, which was quite made for some good social clips, that's for sure, I think Thierry was asked at the stage end about ten X issues and he said, well, if it's having issues, then I'm running on three cylinders, so they were kind of playing a bit of mind games with each other there, which was really entertaining, as well as the sort of action on the stages, which was getting pretty fraught. They were both really pushing as it showed when Thierry just didn't expect this sort of it's almost painful to watch his incident because you could argue maybe breen and Robin pere is incidents were they were higher speed, but they still weren't really, really flat out like you could have a really big off like we saw here last year. But Thierry's was the slowest of the bunch. It was under steering off at a sort of square left hander, which ended up he just explained it was a lot more dirty than he really expected it to be. And he just couldn't get the car back and you can see that from the replay. He has got so much lock on that car for so long just begging it to go left and he almost makes it out if he said to the media afterwards that he with hindsight he would have pitched the car into a spin to avoid the accident. But of course that's the beauty of hindsight, but yeah, it was another shocking moment and just another after all these issues that I just mentioned, another moment where the media center was just in shock because how many more twists could this rally take at this point? Yeah, Tom. And of course being the local as well. You kind of you can feel sort of a collective sigh and gasp from all the people in the service park and in the media. It was a big moment because they're all expecting Thierry to deliver like you did last year. So it kind of you kind of felt sorry for them because obviously that's what all the fans want. They want it to airy victory. They don't want to see them in the ditch, but it was quite interesting that the fact that you had hordes of fans trying to get this pull this car out of this ditch and they got it out. Like they were jumping on the rear wing and tried to pull this thing left right and said to get it back on the road. They did actually get it back on the road, but there was too much damage to the front right on the car and sadly he had to literally pull over in an access riding except defeat really, which interior being Thierry, you know, when you do talk to him or when you do see him afterwards, he's very he's very positive. He's always looking forward, never really sort of throws his toys out of the pram because you could argue that he could absolutely go ballistic himself for that. But when the camera's on, he's like, yeah, it was all very cool, calm collected, and I looking forward already, which is you have to give credit for that because that takes some doing to be able to hide or at least contain the anger. Because to throw it off the road in front of all those expectant fans as well. And yeah, I can't imagine what that feels like. But yeah, it was definitely heartbreaking for the locals. So, we lost our championship leader, our rally leader and stage winner. Then we lost Craig breen, who was 2020 ones winner. Then we lost home hero. Who was 17 seconds up the road from everybody else. And that is how it tanak managed to capitalize on his teammates demise and from then on. He had an 8 second lead head of Evans at that point. That gap was pretty much maintained, but it could have been the other way around. You mentioned issues for Evans. He had a penalty at one point as well, that's not remind him about that because that could. Well, that could have given him the win. Yeah, that's a very good point. We should talk about elephant. Throughout the rally and it's just been a sort of recurring theme he's just not jelling quite as well with this car as he was last year. But again, it follows a similar story of he gets better and better as a rally goes on. He gets more confident, finds the setup that he wants, and by the end of it, you kind of wish I wish he had that kind of drive at the start because it could have been a completely different event. If you look at the time of the deficit between him and tonic at the end, it was 5 seconds. And you have to remember he had ten seconds of that was a penalty. So you can see you would take that penalty away. It could be a different picture, but we should also mention that that was a very rare penalty. It was a co driver error from Scott Martin who will hear from on gravel notes in a next podcast when we talk about the co driving feature that we're going to do later this month. So we'll hear in debt from him just how tough this gear is. But yeah, in this situation, he made an error that you probably would make once in four years. It's not something that ever is such a rare mistake. So Alfred rightly wasn't too critical and didn't did not really criticize Scott at all and just said that these things have this one of those things that just happens. So fair play itself and for that because someone could another person could take that completely differently and say, well, that cost me the victory, but it did not go down that route at all. So fair play to Ralph and for that. But yes, he performed really strongly and you have to remember, this is his fourth second place finish now. And when you think about what we were talking about earlier in the season when we were like, this is not going well for elephant. He's now probably one of the most consistent performers. He just hasn't had that victory that four second places, which is more than anyone else. So he just he's getting closer, but he just can't quite get there and he's been beaten by what Robin bearer and three of those are now tanak in one. So yeah, he must feel like what if I got to do to get a win? And let's hear from him now talking afterwards on catching talent, let's have a listen. When did you
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"The podium positions, which actually ended up being pretty significant given the substantial rate of attrition we saw. So yeah, a difficult moment for him. And then another big offer and I mentioned in the intro, we're getting to it. I did mention in the intro. These ditches will they will just man, they'll pull you in, pull you into the morning. And I say ditches, by the way. You know, we're not talking about a big set of drainage ditches in many places. You know, you could stand up in them and you wouldn't be quite head height to the road that you just came off. We saw Craig breen have a big off as well. We saw the fans coming out with their watering cans to put out a little grass fire. Because of that crash. And they said in the commentary as well that there should have been a hay bale where he exactly where he came off. It kind of looked like the formo had come through ahead of him and actually sort of bounced off that hay bale. Sort of bounced him back on the road. So what happened with Craig breen and another big off? Yeah, I guess and just to follow up on your point there, I certainly wouldn't want to fall into one of those ditches. They are extremely deep. So yeah, you know, I don't want to get anywhere near those. They look absolutely treacherous. But yeah, so what happened was, on stage ten, Craig and already, he's already a minute down, almost a minute down at this point. He'd been absolutely unfortunate because he got caught out in The Rain, there's the patchy rain that arrived in the morning and then he elected to go to wet ties for the afternoon because everyone thought The Rain would come and it never arrived, so he was on wet tyres and dry stages and lost even more time. So it was like a double blow for him. But on Saturday morning stage ten he was up on the splits in stage ten faster than Robin pair and you're thinking, okay, this is now where Craig starts his charge up the leaderboard. This is where he's going to show why he's so good at eat poor alley and a former winner and he was going Egypt was going too fast for a left hander, unfortunately and just got called out the hay bale that was removed by former who had gone through previously wouldn't have saved him in this case. The way that he entered the corner, he was coming at a different angle. It wouldn't have stopped him from going into the ditch. So we can sort of quash that now, but he just ran slightly wide and unfortunately the ditch ditches here will just have a habit of catapulting cars into quite violent roles and it went over a fair few times before actually sort of landing on its roof and they sort of crawled him at Craig and Paul nagel crawled out, obviously unscathed, which is what we want to see. Called out and we're okay, but clearly devastated by what is a third accident in a row now it rallies, which is just, it's just so hard to see that from someone like Craig, given how well he was going last year at the same event. So clearly confidence is down with him at the moment and it's such a hard thing to correct. I can't sit here now and tell you how to do it. I'm not a rally driver. I've not been through it. It's not something that I don't think many people can qualify to be able to sort of give an answer on. But clearly, there's something that needs to happen for him because it's just not working out at the moment. Which is really sad to see. But yeah, as you said, the fans came out in their drive so they're very passionate fans and they're watering cards to come and help. And they tried to do as much as they can to push the car back on it too. It was wheels, so it was easier for them to recover it. Gus greensmith even came through and stopped to help as the stage was red flagged because obviously it was quite a serious incident. So yeah, again, it's just heartbreaking for Craig and French book because he is the team leader. So there's a lot of pressure on him to deliver results and unfortunately things that things are not going well for him at the minute. And then on day two afternoon, that's how we get to taking the lead of the rally. But at the point, neuville was properly in command, right? About 17 odd second lead. He didn't need to be pushing as hard as he did. I slipped off the road and tanak capitalized on that and at that point, Evans was about 8 seconds behind, but it was that. So that day two afternoon newville shunt that changed the lead of the rally. Yeah, so this was actually a really, really fascinating point of the event. I guess you could argue this may be started straight after Cali had his interest on Friday morning, but it really you felt that atmosphere switch to a sense of this is really open now. You're not sure which way this is going to go.
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"The world rally championship headed to ypres and the Flanders region of Belgium 20 stage is 281 kilometers down the narrow, twisty tarmac with drainage ditches, never more than a few millimeters or away from dragging you off the road. Boy did they with this weekend we're going to get into that a very distinctive rally to watch long straight, tight junctions. And seemingly impossibly late breaking points at times, so going into the event, and 94 point lead for championship leader Callie Robin Pereira. The big question that he bounced back extend his lead could Tierra nouvelle use his home advantage, looking for a home win, first win of the seasons as well, and could I tanak follow victory last time out, with a 17th career victory. Let's get that answered on the gravel notes, podcast, damn joined by Tom Howard. Well, it is your show. After all, Tom, you've just got home and you had company this weekend as well. Yeah, we've just got back from Belgium that obviously had our social media guru Michael haffen with us. This weekend to give a first experience of WRC on the ground, which was nice about a shout out with him. Given all the hard work he's put in on our WRC socials this year. So yeah, it was a pretty epic rally. Certainly plenty of talking points, which I'm sure we'll get to soon. Which was one by tanakh coming home. First, followed by Evans in second, lappy in third, and a career best finish. For Solberg in fourth. We're going to get into a lot of stuff today. But first of all, Tom and I'll call you half, 'cause that's what we do in the office. It's felt very formal introducing you that way. Tom and half just tell us about what it's like heading out there, particular to Belgium, I grew up in East Anglia, which is geographically, isn't a million miles away. It's all the same, I guess. Your geology. So I kind of grew up on farm road, single track roads, that just is an amazing place to watch rally car. Some people even say it's a little bit characterless. I couldn't disagree more. What did you make of this weekend's rally and the win by talent? I think we'll have to start with this as he got the first chance to see these cars up close. Yeah, it was absolutely brilliant. I know like you said some drivers or some people might describe the rally as lacking it a little bit of character because it's not as flowing as some of the other places we go to, but certainly as we found out this weekend, Belgium can bite and when it bites, it really bites hard, so the jeopardy of the stage is really adds to it. Also just frankly how narrow the roads are really, really caught the drivers out and it even caught us out when we headed to shakedown on Thursday. We drove one of the stages they would use later in the rally. And they even just keeping a road car on those roads can be slightly challenging, especially when you've got oncoming traffic coming the other way. And you get to see the ditches and you get to see the cuts that are just so synonymous with Belgium's roads. And it's just, it's such a challenge for the drivers and for me personally to get to see WRC cars, especially the new rally one cars in action for the first time. Yeah, okay, maybe they're not giving it a 100% full gas in shape down, but it's still pretty special to get out there and experience the more visceral side of the sport because rallying is still so, so visceral. We were trudging through fields of crops to get down to the shakedown. And when we got there, your hearing pops and bangs in the distance, you know, the cars coming and seeing dust fly up. It's just such a great spectator experience and even for shakedown the village it was in was absolutely packed WRC had sort of invaded a farmhouse for temporary service park. So it's just almost like a time capsule but you're here with these brand new hybrid rally one cars showing the future and then you're going back to all these old farm roads so yeah kind of juxtaposed together but it was just a brilliant experience. What was that like on shakedown because at the beginning of the rally there was a lot of thought about when The Rain comes, not an if, but when The Rain comes been on the right tires at the right time and it's just going to throw everything up in the air. And in the course in the end, weather didn't play a huge part this weekend, but what was that like at the beginning of the rally when you were watching shakedown in person? Yeah, I think first we should say obviously congratulations to our tank because we'll get on to it, but it was a genuinely remarkable win from him. Obviously he picked up the pieces when tiara noville crashed out and we'll get to that. But he started to deliver a solid drive throughout on perhaps surroundings when we don't really associate tannic within entire Mac. He's more of a gravel specialist. He can win on that surface, but his most memorable wins come on gravel. So that was a really impressive victory, but yes, going to your point about The Rain. It showed that it couldn't have been hotter or drier. So the conditions were extremely different to what the teams were expecting. So very difficult to prepare for rain when you're shown and bright hot conditions. So it was an interesting one, but as you say, the teams were adamant that Ryan was coming. And if you look to the forecast, it was 80% chance of precipitation. So it looked like I was going to happen. But it really was only patchy showers on the Friday and unfortunately the M sport boys probably copped the worst of it, which is unfortunate for them, but Ryan didn't arrive. And the sort of telling factor about The Rain in ypres is that as Adrian fomo said to us prior to the event, he said, this will be the hardest tarmac, a wet tarmac event on the calendar if this happens because as you said, the roads are so narrow and slippery. And his point was if you want to win this rally, you will crash because you just can not push because if the moment you push, you will end up in a ditch. So yeah, I was one of those ones where they couldn't really prepare for it because the conditions weren't what they were expecting, and in the end the conditions were actually pretty dry throughout. So the shakedown did prove to be quite relevant for set up for going for the rest of the rally. Yeah, of course, where there were rallies about 30 kilometers or so for Madrid and foremost how so he knows he knows the area, but a massive Friday crash last year that he would, I don't know if it plays on his mind or not. And the other driver to watch could have been Craig breen as well. Winning in 2019, a runner up last year when this event was part of the world championship.
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Crazy. You're just sitting there watching this in all really like I don't know how they do it. But yeah, so katsu to just round wide rolled a couple of times to be fair and very lucky because he landed on his on his wheels and I'll be honest with you there was there wasn't a great deal of damage from the outside. It looked like he'd really escaped one there and yeah, it didn't worry him at all. The team repaired it and he was back underway that evening for the first stage. So yeah, but he drove, he drove really well, very smartly for our actually. After doing something like that, you could be, you know, your confidence could be quite dented, but he was, he was very clever and yeah, in fact, he was quite funny. He's a very likeable character and this was his 5th attempt at rally Estonia in the first hurry to actually reach the finish, so he was pretty happy to get there because it's not been one of his happy hunting grounds. And let's just finish off talking about M sport a challenging rally for the Ford cars. Adrian formo emerging as the only driver in the points coming home. 7th, like he's finding his feet, a little bit, again, this season, but otherwise it was a difficult difficult weekend for M sport. Just sum up. What happened there for our listeners? Yeah, of course, you know, again, another difficult one for them. They obviously came in with some very high hopes, certainly attached to Craig breen, because he's finished this event second in the previous two seasons. So this is one of the ones he really goes well at. And he was right in a mix from the start, one of the first stage was in contention early on Friday morning, but he just made an error, misjudged the braking, going into a left hander, ran wide into the grass, which seemed innocuous at the time, but little did he know that in the grass was buried quite a significant concrete post which he hit. That broke the steering and that was game over. He did return on Saturday and got through to Sunday, but that was any hopes of any points gone out the window and that less sort of the pressure on the rest of the M sport guys. Pierre Louis lube was going very well. Until the chaos of the Rhine ensued on Friday night stage where three people got caught out on the same corner but he was the worst. He sort of went over this jump here which he said was like driving on ice went straight to bank rolled on his side. Luckily the fans came to push him back onto his wheels, but he lost two minutes there and that was sort of put the end to that and then he actually retired on Sunday with a sort of clumsy arrow where he just hit a rock with the front wheel and that damages the suspension and that was retirement and for Gus greensmith. He knocked a tire off the rim, which cost him time after landing from a jump awkwardly. And yeah, again, it sort of just sort of seemed to fall away from them. Former was just he needed around like this. Oh, did he ever make that earlier this year? But he was just solid, solid throughout barely made a mistake, and this was what he needed, didn't push like he could have pushed a really threw off the road here because it was easy to do that as we saw. But yeah, very, very smart drive from it. And I think he really will benefit from that because yeah, he needed the result. So yeah, I was just saying we should probably just one sort of just as Kappa a couple of wild things that happen because of rally does tend to throw up some bizarre situations, but yeah, so Oliver Solberg had probably the save of the season. Where he was, he was brilliant at the Saturday afternoon. Very, very close to getting a stage for any former pipped in by .1 seconds, which is so hard for him because he's yet to win a stage. It would have been great for him to get one on the board. But yeah, flicked over this jump sideways and was just heading direct for a tree. It looked like it was going to be a one way ticket to shunt down. And each somehow, I don't know how he did this, but he wrestled this back. I got it on the road. We actually posted the clip on social media and if you get a chance to look at it, please do, because it really is quite fun phenomenal how he did that. I don't know how he did it, but yeah, that was impressive and co driver. Was perhaps the quickest of thinking of people on Friday night when the heating pipe of all things inside the cockpit of Titanic's car. Just disconnected and misted up his screen. So I can see where he was going. He fired off the road, but the quick thinking of Martin, the managed to prop the pipe up with his foot, his left foot, while still calling the notes, yeah, incredible incredible. I don't know, I've never seen it like that before. But the quick thinking and the now to be able to do that as well as cool the notes that a hundred K's an hour, I'll take my hat off to him. Which is a wonderful segue into rally Finland, where we head next where you head next, because that could be you, propping something up with your foot while calling the note. As we get ever close, you're getting nervous yet about your debut in the car. Absolutely. And certainly when takamoto rolled on the shakedown, I was a little bit concerned, shall we say? Yes. You know, of course it would be fine, but yeah. Yeah, and I don't think I'll be doing any of those antics, I think I'll be barely able to call the notes, let alone. They'll be able to think about propping up a pipe with my foot, yeah, no, it's going to be a bit interesting. We'll see how it goes. So I've got to have to do a fair bit of practice over the next few days. What are you doing to practice?
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Sort of tale of two halves in a way, happy to be at least on the podium again, but disappointed to not be a bit more competitive. It was tricky out there in certain sections of the weekend. He's got a scary points advantage now in terms of the championship title. What is your thought? Yeah, it's a pretty, it was already a pretty long reach. And it just got longer, you know? Of course, like I mentioned already, it doesn't change the approach we're still there to go to everybody and do the best for ourselves. And of course, the team as well. So it doesn't, it doesn't change so much. So there we go. You know, he found some positives in coming home second. He's closed the gap he's third in the championship now behind neuville, elfin Evans on 79 points to 92 and Robin pair a 175 points in the championship. But from your experience because you've been going, you know, you've been traveling around the world this year and you're there in the service parks and you're talking to everyone. What is this domination doing to his competitors? Are they getting their heads down almost or is there still some optimism there? What's your opinion on how he's beating down his opposition? I think when elfin is offering him praise for the way he's driving sort of says it all really because you just have to I think as a competitor you just have to take your hat off when you see quality like that. There's no there's no other way to deal with it I think you have to just sort of put this in that sort of mental mindset of we are seeing something quite extraordinary here. So I think but you're right, this could completely destroy anyone's confidence. But yeah, I think everyone sort of just kind of, I guess like I think elfin said there like it's just made a long shot even longer for him in the title race, which is just I guess the only way you could look at it. I mean, they're in operation. I think the other thing to bear in mind is that the Toyota is the best car at the moment. So if we're sort of looking towards his other rivals from outside of Toyota, the tan accident novels of this world are high and they know that they're in a way fighting with one hand beyond their backs because their car is not on the same level as the Toyota they've got their own battles going on as we've documented numerous times. Development call on the car there's been no development on it really the behind the 8 ball. So the high end died to win a rally, that is a really extraordinary achievement at the moment because of where that car is. So what tanak did in Sardinia should be remembered as quite an extraordinary achievement really to win that round. But yeah, I guess would have sport as well. Their car is strong, but they're lacking experience in their driver lineup. So when obviously when Loeb is not there, they're relying heavily on Craig and when Craig breen is sort of struggling a little bit, he's got pace, but he's only been able to deliver a couple of podiums so far and the other drivers are relatively young. So yeah, I can see how they would be looking at that and thinking not quite sure how you beat carry at the moment. Having a look at, as we head further down, we'll hear from it now, like I say, previous winning, the most successful. Driver of rally Estonia in the past and hear what he had to say afterwards and let's actually, let's say we're a clip of him talking about his future because it was put to him about some of the things that are going around the service park, particularly amongst some members of the media, but hearing things about a certain commitment to the sport from his team, Hyundai, this is what he had to say about that. There is a great support from Korea and for sure everybody wanted a lot, but it just needs some very, let's say, straightforward changes in general structure, but we are working on it and these are definitely looks a bit difficult, but in the long term it's important for the sport as well that we come back. So yeah, pretty comprehensive denial there and what have you heard and what's your take? Because we think that Hyundai are here for the long term. What's your reading of them being in the sport? You can fully understand why speculation like this is carrying around and often there's no smoke without fire and with these things. So yeah, there's no doubt about it. If you're a big car manufacturer and you're not going so well in a sport and there's a sort of global cost crisis going on and it's difficult to sell cars and build new cars at the moment. You can understand why any manufacturer might consider walking away from a motor sport activity because at the end of the day, this is a sort of luxury item. Yes, it is a marketing tool, but it is a sort of luxury item. So just to put that into context, you can understand why such rumors would go around and certainly after Monte Carlo after that sort of horror show that they had there. You could there were sort of some rumors even kicking around after that. When you look at the situation that they've been dealt, you know, obviously a team, they're a long time team to principal Andrea damo lift in the winter, so it's certainly some upheaval in the camp and we've obviously reported that there's been some complications internally with the team structure with the sort of lack of leadership at the moment and parts supply crisis. So, you know, they've had to deal with a lot and to be fair, it's been a tough ask for them. You have some sympathy for them because they've been dealt a pretty raw hand here. So the interesting thing for me, I think, is that just a couple of weeks ago, they announced the three year extension, the WRC Hyundai team and actually the three year extension we shell their top sponsors. So if you were going to pull out of a sport, why would you do that? I'm not totally sure. I mean, obviously these things can be undone, but that seems like a sort of bizarre move if you weren't committed to the sport. So obviously we don't want them to see them go, because it'd be huge. Detrimental to WRC. We need higher and are there. But we also need them there as a competitive force. So look, let's not forget, they won two manufacturers titles on the bounce. They know how to build a car and deliver a strong weapon for tanak and tiring of it. So it's just been a circumstances, I think, that's left them in the situation. They can turn this around, but this is not going to be a job that you can turn around overnight. It's going to take on the rally. There are fundamental problems with the development of this car. And that can only have happened because of the rushed process that they had to do to get it ready for Monte Carlo. So they're trying their best to get this right.
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"He's a very nice character in the paddock. Always got time for people and he's quite a nice sense of humor as well. He's someone if you're new to rally, watch Oliver Solberg because he's very entertaining. So yeah, I think he's got a genuine shot at opponent this weekend. If the car is strong, he can compete here. We know that. So yeah, I think he's definitely got a good chance, whereas Thierry. Yeah, maybe this isn't quite his preferred area, but he's a solid driver throughout and I would be expecting him to fight for a podium here. So yeah, he's keeping Callie on honest at the moment, but I think again, no one will probably want to see Thierry get a win more than anyone really because of the bad luck he's faced this year. He's been, he's been sort of, I guess, the WRC's best mechanic in a way because he's had to fix so many things on the road. So I think all that effort, you know, at some point he's got to get a reward for that. So maybe he strikes here, but again, as I said, I think it's a fascinating prospect we've got this weekend. We're going to talk about M sport a bit more in a moment, but let's just run through their drivers and get your thoughts on it. Like I said, big high hopes for Craig breen, but also Gus greensmith. There's lube bay. There's formo. What are your impressions of their chances? Yeah, I'm sport again. As Richard Miller said, they just need to stay in the fight here because they've got, they've got the car, they've got the weapon and they've got the drivers, they think can deliver and incredibly there's proof of that. He's been on the podium in the last two Estonia rounds. So he's going to be the favorite to lead eSports charge. He probably needs a result actually because he's had two podiums, but he hasn't had the consistency that M sport would have liked to have seen from their team leader. So there's a bit of pressure on him, definitely, and but I think he's more than capable of delivering a strong performance here in Estonia. Moving on to the other drivers. I think one to watch will be Pierre Louis Louie. He's been really good since he joined the team and has probably overshadowed Gus and Adrian in some respects which will, which is probably not what people are expecting of Pierre Louis. So he's gone really well on gravel previously in Sardinia. So I think there'll be a lot of eyes on him. He could really surprise. And again, at some point, it's got to happen for Gus and Adrian. They've had a real rough run to prepare of had to fix their own cars in safari because the team boss put them to work to repair the damage that they cause. So there will be probably looking to repay the team and I think these two, this could be a very good opportunity for them to shine. You've segued perfectly into what we'll talk about next. As you catch up with team principal Richard milliner and we'll talk about their thoughts, their hopes, their reliability and we'll talk a little bit about Hyundai as well you've been fresh off the phone to their deputy team director Julien monce. That's on the way. Stick around. Okay, well, after a strong start, M sport haven't hit their stride again all year, great first round, but apart from that, haven't been able to lead the way. The championship is led by Toyota on 246 points, Hyundai one 8 four M sport 40 points adrift from them. You just caught up with the team principal Richard Miller and he talked about fixing the purifier, which took out Loeb, also some issues going into Estonia as well. Let's have a quick listen to this first clip. We'll get your thoughts
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"And Tom's just off the phone, literally off the phone with Hyundai's boss, and I want to know if they can spill the beans on what they talked about. That's all coming up, make sure you keep listening. First of all, right, Tom. You're back in the country, you were struck down a bit in Kenya. So I just want to say again how we all appreciate your coverage. You battled through how long did it take to be fighting fit once you landed home? Yeah, thanks for that. It's nice kind words. But yeah, it probably did something a good week to get myself properly back together at whatever I ended up picking up out there was certainly didn't agree with my body. Oh goodness. Yeah. We're definitely in a much, much better situation than last week on my chassis rails have been straightened and I've got a new roll cage and I'm ready to go. Round 7 of the world rally championship in Estonia kicks off tomorrow as we record this in the evening, about just after 6 30 UK time, a couple of hours time difference to Estonia. Kenya's gravel was a car breaker. Tell us how the Estonian countryside just outside of their second city is going to be different for these rally cars. Yes, so it is a gravel rally, but this couldn't really be further removed from safari rally Kenya in some respects that you could say or how is it how can that possibly be? Well, in safari, the rally was on a much rougher gravel, but also it was punctuated by some deep sand called sand, which really did affect the cars. There was no sand here in Estonia, and the roads are much finer, smoother gravel, and a lot more crests and jumps and undulations fast, high speed corners, very little in the way of short and sharp turns. So it's a very different rally pretty much a sort of a real genuine sprint when it comes to rallying on gravel. So really different prospect for the teams. And they will probably be looking forward to this one as this is probably not so much a car breaker. Well, Toyota are led by wonder kid Robin pere. And I sound so old when I say that, but I'm trying to be respectful, but also point out that he is doing immense immense driving for his experiences age as well. They scored a one, two, three, four, which again is almost unheard of, but not unheard of. Complete domination there. It seems that Robin pair can start from anywhere and dazzle on any surface. As we go to Estonia this weekend, is he going to be favorite again because the home hero and 2019 champ I tanak? Well, he'll want to spoil the party and nobody has a better record in Estonia than him. But big but last year, when he came up against a 20 year old called Callie Robin parr, where he couldn't beat him. So what's the form book saying? Yeah, you've absolutely hit the mail by head there. Yeah, it's actually a very exciting prospect for all of us rally fans to see how this is going to pan out because as you say. Kelly Rothenberg is the man to beat at the moment four wins from 6 rounds so far. In fact, he's won. Half of all rallies since he got his first WRC win at Estonia last year. So he really has been the dominant force. He's won 6 or 12 rallies, which is pretty much unheard of in rallying. Looking at people like Loeb and OJ to be to be doing those sort of figures. But yes, you'd say, on paper, rather than pair a definitely one of the favorites after winning last year's event, but you can not rule out Santa 'cause you say four rally Estonia wins. This guy's got all the support he could possibly need in Estonia. He's possibly the most famous Estonian, that's how popular is over there. Definitely going to be a favorite, one to watch out for but again. It's all probably going to come down to higher and die and Toyota in terms of their cars because hollandaise we know reliability hasn't been very favorable this year, but they have been really testing hard on gravel and this is a really good opportunity from a smoother roads. This is a good chance for them to strike, but Toyota have unleashed an upgraded GR yaris this weekend. It's got a more powerful engine, a tweaked rear wing, and this is all because they want to combat high end eyes, top end speed, which is which is generated through a longer gear ratio and a much slightly more powerful engine. So as Toyota's technical director Tom Fowler put it, if you want to go in a straight line, you get a high end diet. If you want to go around corners, you have a Toyota. So this is why they've unleashed this engine upgrade. So it's going to be a fascinating situation and one person we should also talk about is Craig breen from M sport. He finished second in Estonia last year. So he will be among the favorites too. Just on tanakh though, do you think he'll feel the pressure of racing at home and to get the win? There will be some pressure definitely from the fans, but also he's probably so far back in the chapter now, 83 points. It's a real tall ass to the point where you could argue he has less pressure on him because he's so far back. He could probably let loose a bit more because he's got really nothing to lose. So I think in many ways, he might have a bit less pressure going into this one. And in terms of last year, you know, it was a bit I was a bit cheeky in my intro. He lost out because of two punctures and had no spare. So it's not like he was completely outclassed. By no, he wasn't. He also kind of it was self inflicted, shall we? Shall we say to some degree? He was pushing too hard, had a wild off, had a puncture, which was obviously after a partner that was sort of a surprising one. So yeah, it was one of those ones that was a bit a bit misfortunate, but again, if you had carried two spares with him, he would still be going and you never know you might well have won the rally. So you could argue that the tactics were perhaps slightly wrong and also you would eat suffered a bit of misfortune. Let's get back to the cars then, because that new package for Toyota in Estonia, that sounds to me ominous for their rivals, who are all trying to play catch up at the minute anyway. Yeah, Toyota have proven they've got the best car. It's pretty bulletproof. As we saw in safari rally in the toughest rally, they finished one, two, three, four. So they have a very reliable car and then for them to go and release another update, I'm sure the teams will be the other teams now spawn Hyundai will be pretty despondent about that. But it was a planned update frontier. They were always going to do this, so it's not like they should have been surprised about it, but it'll be interesting to see how that goes. You never know, as I said, the high end I and M sport. This could be a much more favorable, favorable situation for them. So I'm expecting a much closer fight this time around. What about, on a tank's teammates, Oliver Solberg, he was a winner here back in 2020. Could he be one to watch? And what about his fellow Hyundai driver, Thierry neuville? He's doing his best to keep Robin pair at least honest in the championship in second place. What do you think of those drivers? Yeah, Oliver Solberg, I think everyone would like to see him go well and perhaps snatch a first podium.
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Puma is strong too. So yes, I'm not going to, I think those two could be quite handy, Craig breen is on an absolute high at the moment after Sardinia, the confidence is there. So the cars there, so he will be in the mix. And again, the hind eyes obviously the confidence is up, but we still really don't know, there's still question marks over the reliability. And if there's going to be an event where reliability woes come up, it's going to be this one. And case proven last year with Thierry Neville on course to win until a suspension failure on the final day robbed him of victory. So he's going to be wanting revenge, but he's also the back who's going to know that his car's not exactly any more stronger than last year. So yeah, I'm not sure how they play that. I don't know how hard I'd play it this weekend because we just don't know how a lot of that car is going to be. Yeah, the drivers and co drivers who are slightly handier with a spanner, let's say, could well be busy. Over this event. And that could make or break some of the results for our listeners who want to follow along with the coverage. What's the best way to follow us on social media and to follow our updates? Yes. Yep, we'll be hopefully providing obviously regular reports on auto sport and most product dot com across the event. So we certainly have some reaction and features as well lined up and obviously on socials there'll be plenty of video clips to hopefully entice you in to enjoy what should be a spectacular safari rally. Excellent. Well, as we record this, we're about a day away from the first of 19 stages being held. And of course, if you tune into our gravel notes, podcast channel, if indeed you are listening to this on the auto sport channel, not on the gravel notes channel, make sure you do subscribe and get your rally content in one place as well. Thank you very much for listening to the podcast today, and we'll see you soon..
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"So he could only come home in Sardinia. So but that's all he needs to do really to win the title. That's how big a lead he's got. So really, realistically speaking, if he does the same here this weekend, that's perfect for him. And this is also going to be another tough one to open the roads on. These stages are particularly dusty in, as I said, the sand is really tricky and the stages are a lot rougher and I think Sebastian ogier said it was going to be more about survival this weekend than anything else like you can't go flat out. It's just not possible. So yeah, Kelly really, he's in a tough spot, but again, if he reaches the finish, who knows where he's going to be in the rankings come the end of it, because it's going to be such a rally of attrition. He could if he keeps his nose clean, he could end up with a podium. Have you spoken to many of the drivers and teams yet in the times? You've only just arrived really, I guess, though. Yeah, we've had a quick chat with the crews today. Yeah, obviously they're all very wary, how tough this is going to be, but also super excited because this is a really one of those special events that if you're a rally driving live for, because these are the sort of adventures that you want to go on. These are the challenges that you want to be tested. And also the crowd here will be nothing will be nothing short of spectacular. There's something about rallying and the Kenyans that really strikes a chord and the crowds will be huge. There's so much enthusiasm for it. It's quite an unusual atmosphere. Not that to say that other events are the crowd aren't as enthusiastic, but there's something a bit different here. There's a vibe of this is like their one day in the sun, so to speak or that they're one special event they have a year. So everything goes into it. So the drivers have really excited to just to be here because of the passionate fans. The greatest of all time, the goats are back last time it was what you call it goats on gravel. Have you got anything similar for this one? Well, surely it's goats on safari, isn't it? Goats on safari there. The sebs on safari, the goats on safari, I like. So of course, yeah, low band lobes are and OJ are back together. Auger the winner last time out when the rally returned. Last year, Loeb, a slightly bigger gap, though. Since he raced here. Yes, so this is Sebastian Loeb's first safari since 2002, which was the last one of the original safari rally before it went on its hiatus. So he's coming back 20 years after his debut at the safari rally, which is quite a nice little story. But even he today said that he didn't remember it being as rough as this and he's getting a bit older now. So I'm not sure if he can quite cope with the roughness of this at anymore. But I'm sure he'll be fine once generally and gets going. He was third fastest in shakedown today, so he's equipped to the conditions quickly. But yeah, interesting story. And again, it just highlights when an event like this is on the calendar. People like auger and Loeb simply can not resist it. They don't need to be here. They're doing partial campaigns, but just a chance to tackle something like this. They just jump at it, and they want to be here. What realistic chance of these guys got coming back, doing a partial campaign, are they got of a decent result or a win? Yeah, absolutely. As you said, OJ won this last year. He's done it before. He can easily win this lobe as well. You can not rule this guy out. I mean, even in Portugal, on his first gravel event in the rally one car, just in May, he was leading. Obviously he did crash out of the event, but he was leading at that point. So the pace is there. There's definitely no question marks over that. And as I said, with the attrition, these older guys may be a bit smarter in terms of how they approach this. If they can see that this is going to be a real real tough ask. Then you would put your money on those two steps, being at there at the end, because they're very clever and wily characters. So yeah, I'm not going to rule them out of a victory. And it will be a fantastic battle if we can have another said versus Monte Carlo, that would be perhaps a perfect way to have this sapphire rally go off. What about the rest of the field anyone that either you've caught up with or you think has got some decent form here or you just fancy for a decent event? Well, I'm going to say M sport because they were very strong here last year and they adopted approach of let's not go flat out and let's forget to the end and that approach paid dividends last year as Gus greensmith and Adrian formo finished fourth and 5th, which was their best team result of the year last year. So I'm going to say those two characters could be in for a chance to really upset things because I think they're sensible and they know from last year how tough this was. So I think if they can do anything like they did 12 months ago, they're going to be in with a shout of a really strong result. And that we all know that puma is strong too. So yes, I'm not going to, I think those two could be quite handy, Craig breen is on an absolute high at the moment after Sardinia, the confidence is there..
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Day event four different leaders at various points over the weekend as well, Tom. After Thierry had got the lead on Thursday, he lost that to elf and Evans on the Friday morning, but elfin hit a compression which punched a hole in his radiation on these Toyota. So he was out of action very early Friday out of the lead. That put his team at lapier head before last night. To him on Saturday, was it Saturday morning? On Saturday morning. So he crashed out the lead on Saturday morning candy in Oates, the advantage which I basically took a grip off and then commanded the rally from there on it. So at one point we did have four different leaders in four stages, so it was sort of, it was pretty busy. But yeah, ultimately, quite a hectic rally, not only from the temperature side of things, but just on the action on the stages, plenty going on. To keep your eyes on. Absolutely. And as I said, a great result for Hyundai and as well who's waited a really long time to get back on the top step of the podium. Talk us through the rest of the podium, if you will, as well. Obviously won the rally, but he won it from sports Craig breen, who produced his best driver of the season. He needed that. He really did. He even admitted afterwards that it becomes slightly lost with himself really over the last couple of events and perhaps was trying a bit too much. And he was under a bit of pressure being team leader as well. And he's said afterwards that I just let the car do the talking, I didn't worry too much about chasing things. And it all came good for him. He was excellent. A really, really solid display. And scored a sports first podium since January's Monte Carlo rally, so it was a podium that was much needed by the team. In third was Danny sordo, so it was a double podium success for hi and I so they were super happy with that and for Danny as well. The experience just tells he's 39. He's won this event twice and in fact this is only his second start in the car and in two starts sharing the car and so no experience with very little experience of these early one cars. Very little experience that he's finished third on his two starts. So you can't argue he's a very safe pair of hands and his Craig breen said in the previous press conference that if he can drive a more confidence as well because he's such a good-looking man that he could fall back on his modeling career. Those were the words of cry brain who was very, very, very good comedy form this weekend, shall we say, but yes, Danny sort of safer hands. And in fourth, we really should make a big deal of this because Pierre Louis lube finished fourth, which is his best ever result in the WRC, and he's had a rough 18 months. So if you remember last year, differ difficult time in a two C competition high end I struggled massively, people didn't really think a great deal of him. But now we've seen the real lube and he's quick. He's good. He's a very good driver. And also last year, he got run over. To add insult to injury, breaking his hip, just when he was walking around in Paris. So he really had an awful awful 2021. So it was so good to see him smiling and not only smiling, but performing brilliantly and overshadowing. It was sport teammates Gus greensburg Nigerian former, who are there for the full season, so they may well be able to pressure because this chap is rapid. Yeah, I'll talk in a Craig brain. He's never lost his sense of humor. This is what he told the TV cameras at one point over the weekend. But I managed it. Okay..
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Was actually talking to rich Miller, the M sport bars at the time and we actually stopped our interview because we could hear what was going on and we both wanted to watch what was happening. And they were pushing this car and you could see there are absolutely exhausted and by the time they'd reached the time control tent, which is opposite the media zone. They both sort of collapsed on the floor. I Paul Martin who's like just had nothing left and Thierry was just slumped on the roof of the car just like I can't believe what's happening and he was so tired. And they checked in four minutes late, which meant they got a 42nd penalty, which you just at that point you're like, wow, that's some effort to keep to do that, but then the punishment is obviously you kind of feel for them. But then you're feeling probably changed a bit after that after you realize what else had happened before that because at that point we didn't know that what had happened was obviously he'd lost a fair bit of time to this ordinary issue and then Thierry in trying to make up so it said time was speeding ridiculously on a road section to towards a service park. He was clocked doing a 100% more than the speed limit that he should have been, which is not on. And was given a one minute penalty for that and was fined €1900 and the FIA gave him two days of public service that he needs to carry out. And this isn't the first time he's been done for speeding either. So it's one of those ones where you can kind of see why he's done it because he tried to argue that the rides were clear. It was going to be no one in danger and he was trying to make up the lost time. I can understand why you would have made that call, but again, you can't rule the rules. You can't do that really. It's not completely on. So you've got to pay for that, which basically put him out of any chance of victory. And then he copped another penalty, had an engine drama, which lost him some power. So I wouldn't know he had two minutes of penalties. But somehow managed to get back into third spot by leapfrogging Craig breen with some excellent driving on my ad. And then he saved a special fireworks for the final stage where obviously I'm not quite I mean he would have been going for the power stage points. That's why he would have been on maximum attack. But he's just misjudged a sort of left hand corner coming into a right and the car is nosed into a ditch and then fired up into the air almost flipped over and then as landed on its wheels facing the wrong way. Might add at this point he didn't have intercom, so he couldn't hear his co drivers, so we don't know whether that might have played a part of it. So he's picked up a front and a rear puncture, but kept the thing going. Turn it around, had no pace notes for the rest of the stage. So Paul Martin, VW is doing hand signals in the car to tell him where to go. And he drags the car. I don't know how he did that. He dragged the car home and still picked up a podium, which is just, it just beggars belief. You were sitting in the media in the media room at this point. We're watching that happen. And then Kelly pull off what a miracle to win the rally and you're just like, is this some sort of dream? Or is this actually real? Yeah, you just couldn't quite believe what you were seeing. And I've not been doing a great deal of rallying in my time, but I have done a fair few years report on motor sport and there are not many finishes like that, I've seen over the time. So yeah, incredible event. It's worth checking out. If you haven't seen some of the bits and bobs of footage yet, it's worth having a look at that on board from Craig breen in the mist and the fog. Which just takes your breath away and those big instances we've talked about as well as those images are pretty iconic already how Neville didn't flip onto the roof I have no idea. Things like that worth checking out if you haven't already. So Tom, we move on to the Vodafone rally to Portugal to give it its full title. I believe. In less than a month to wait now and of course we get OJ and Loeb. Back again, reigniting that battle, which at one point you might have thought, okay, well, those are going to be the high points, the flash points of this season, but in a way. I mean, it's an incredible season already, but that's not to say that we don't want to see these two incredible drivers back. So we're looking forward to Portugal. And we're going to be there. Our coverage a little bit more enhanced as well. Tell us about that. Yeah, just sort of go back on your point there. The goats are back for Portugal. So we've got goats and gravel, round two. Wow, it should be an interesting fight, no less. I mean, obviously everyone's excited that the Sebastian's lobe and auger will be back. But who knows? Maybe they won't be able to contend with Callie Robin parent. That might just be the situation now. It might be a case of that they might be overshadowed by Kali now. That is how the things rallying is playing out at the moment, but of course you can not rule out those two Sebastian..
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"So if there is going to be a time where perhaps the hybrid box might get knocked about a bit. That could be the telling. There could be some issues there, but I obviously touch wood that I hope there isn't. One of the big incidents that you want to talk about from rally Croatia that we haven't covered off yet. Yeah, I guess we'll start with a lot of it's all about and I feel sorry for him because he had a really good rally. He'd never been to crystal before, so this was completely new to him. And he drove really, really well. And up until that moment, which was on stage 9, he was sitting in 5th position, had been very smart about it because the conditions remember were extremely challenging wet, foggy, to be honest, I don't know how they do it. It's genuinely impossible. I think Craig breen actually said, these are the worst conditions I've ever faced. You could only see ten meters in front of you. And when you're going through rows like that with trees, either side of stuff at speed, that's quite frightening, but although he actually said, I quite enjoyed it, which is just a classic rally driver response. Anyways, this is the worst conditions ever. But yeah, I quite enjoyed it. But anyway, go back to Oliver. He had a big lose coming into a left hander, just got a little bit caught out when the over a crest and the car had gone a bit light. And is spun the car around quite fast and gone reverse into a grass bank. The crew absolutely fine, they got out of the car, fine, and then suddenly the car ignited the exhaust on the car had caught caught the rear of the car a light. So it's nothing to do with the hybrid or anything like that. It was just a classic case of hot exhaust. Catching a car on fire eventually did get put out, but Oliver was like, yeah, it was quite hard watching the car. Up in flames and there's nothing you can do about it until the fire truck arrives is quite hard to watch, so they didn't rejoin. So that was the end of their rally. Moving on, I guess, then to perhaps the most bizarre accident was actually in full mode on stage three on Friday where he ended up in someone's garden, which is not a sentence or ever written before. What happened was he caught out, got caught out on a wet patch just that complained the rear of the car sort of spun round and he fired through a hedge. And then landed in a sort of farmer's garden and the car pulled up just avoiding a statue of a concrete duck. Which was just you sitting there at the media room and I'm watching this and I'm like, is this real? Yeah, it's real. So yeah, the cars pulled up completely, yeah, big damage to it. Luckily, the crew okay, we can laugh about it, but it would have been a pretty scary incident and the crew were okay. But yet a car chassis damage to they couldn't repair it. So that was the end of his rally, but again massive disappointment because that's three retirements in a row now and you just you do have to wonder what is going to happen there because he really needs a result, but I don't know what how you get over some other that's quite tough, tough character building sort of situation he's in at the moment. But yeah, so it was just to sort of end that story the owner of the property that the car ended up in. Some sort of local farmer who actually understand found it all quite hilarious, really. But an offer, I think he offered them some cheese to have before they went back. As you do, Assad Assad incident, we can make light of it, but it's actually for the team that prepare that car. It's a lot of work that goes in there that's gone up quite quickly and ended quite quickly. So yeah, you feel for the team and the driver because it's just one of those ones. Thierry actually had a moment at the same corner but saved it. But Adrian didn't. And that's interesting. So it's just one of those ones like a bit of experience, but again, if there's a river of water run across the road, I'm not quite sure how you meant to react to that without it's just one of those ones. It's quite difficult. And let's talk about neuville. Where do you start with Thierry? He had another event or rally. It just seems as though everything that could possibly happen to him happened to him. It just seemed like this happens quite a lot, which is quite an interesting one, but I guess we'll start off with the fact that he was on the pace and on Friday, second fastest to rob from pere. He was, in fact, the closest until what talent did on the final day he was the closest to Robin pair at any point, I think he was 12 seconds, 12 and a half seconds behind after stage four. So he was genuinely on Callie's pace. But then, as I said, stage forward, all unraveled for him because the alternate filed on his I 20. And it meant that the car stopped on a road section outside the service park and pull Thierry and Martin Vida ger the co driver had to push the car by hand. 800 meters to get it into the service park on a road. I was actually in the media zone when they came in and we could hear the noise and kerfuffle..
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Difference you'll see is genuinely when the cars are in service park and when they're driving through the EV zones on the road section, so they will be obviously a lot quieter in an electric mode. So I actually think that WRC has done a very clever thing here. They've lessened a blow, shall we say of the downsides of having an electric in motor sport when the action is on. So I think we're going to see much difference in terms of that visceral reaction as you said in the sport. They're still going to the pops and bangs. We all love and the spectacular nature of it. So I actually think the WRC can be commended for the way they've tackled its approach to being a bit more environmentally friendly, without taking too much away from the show. Their end with part one of gravel notes back in 2022 and join us as we talk about the championship next. Welcome back to the second part of gravel notes with Tom Howard. My name is Martin Lee, and I'll be joining Tom on a few of his podcasts this year to ask him the questions, but Tom, you are our man going to as many of the events as possible and that all starts with Monty this weekend. She must be so buzzing to go to that. You described it before we started recording as a bucket list events. So you're excited. Absolutely. Yeah. It's the Monte Carlo rally. It's one of the most famous there are. There is. Yeah, it's been on my list for a long time. So to be actually there and to be there for a huge change of the rules as well, there's so much to talk about. Yeah, I'm super excited to go. Let's talk about the championship then. We've gone it we've covered off the tech in the first part we heard from oga Solberg and Brie. Now let's talk about some of the championship battles we're going to see this year and here from more of the drivers that you spoke to as well for our 17 page auto sport magazine preview. In terms of the championship, drivers and teams, what are the big stories that your listeners need to be looking out for? Of course, the big story is that Sebastien ogier won't win the 2022 world championship. He is only doing a partial campaign for the Toyota. So we are going to get theoretically a different champion. So the key player and that makes his one 8 world championships including the last two is no longer there. So there's very much everyone will be fighting it out to follow in his footsteps to become champions. So it's going to be very unpredictable, also we don't know who's done their homework with the car, so we don't really know who's going to come out on top, but there are obviously some key contenders. So I think you'd be hard pressed not to have elephant Evans at Toyota Cali Ron Perry, his team mate. The Hyundai of tier novell and oy tanak and M sports Craig breen for me, those are your contenders for the championship. And yeah, it's an interesting mix of drivers there. Okay, that first name you mentioned there, elfin Evans. You caught up with him on the phone recently to ask him about that kind of runner up status. And here's what he had to say. Some of which have enough capacity over the last year or so. So it is the really difficult to predict and of course now we've got. Coming into the mix again with some driver lineup potential. So it's going to be very difficult to call who's going to be informed to be honest and that makes it.
The Autosport Podcast
"craig breen" Discussed on The Autosport Podcast
"Solberg spoke to you about Oliver and you called him to ask about these new hybrid systems. And he said this. So it will be different for everyone also. So I mean, it's a lot to learn a little bit. That's still, but I feel good and I have it in good way of using it. And I think I just need more of my little. So his point there, I need more mileage, he says. So does that kind of play into what you just said in the last thing he wants to do is day one, big shunt, lose mileage. Is it possible that we'll see the drivers that maybe 95 98% of their capacity just because they want to learn? Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head there. I think that's exactly the case. But in Oliver's situation, it's a slightly different because this is his first year in the big time with a factory drive for Hyundai sharing the third car with Danny sawdust. So he's not going to want to throw off the road on his first day at school, so to speak. So for him, young guy got a lot of talent, a lot of potential for him, he just needs to have a claim rally. But for the others, yeah, it's so difficult to know what your strategy is because we just don't know a lot of it is really a voyage into the unknown. We don't know who is going to be able to master these cars better. Like for example, the younger drivers might get to grips with this hybrid technology better than the older drives. We just don't simply know that hasn't been enough testing to know where everyone stands. So yeah, I guess because Monte Carlo is such a specialist rally as well. It's some like any of the others. Maybe there is a case to be said that's just go 90%, not a 100% and just bank points because we don't know how valuable that's going to be coming the end of the season. Now, you also spoke to Craig breen ahead of the season to talk about driving style and particularly the region and this is what he had to say. On your break and then you're like a boost and then you straight away and then obviously once that's been once that's been used, you have to regenerate enough again on your.
Raceline Radio
"craig breen" Discussed on Raceline Radio
"I vote to reinstate fenix richmond and milwaukee 'em sports cars lime rock connecticut jordan taylor antonio garcia with the overall gt l. m. win in the corvette canada's roman angeles and ross gun and they're racing aston martin taking gt good work their fellow conduct. Jeff kingsley. mario bacher nine thousand. Gt d. in the finishing order in their compass racing acura the rally news presented by the subaru wrx and wrx. Sti the typical sports cars world rally championship rally estonia twenty year old kelly rovan para becomes the youngest winner in world rally championship history for toyota almost a full minute. Better than hyundai's. Craig breen on the gravel youngest before kelly. You always toyota team boss yari. Mati latvala who won in sweden for ford in two thousand eight when he was only twenty to drag racing. Nhra ben demeer colorado. They didn't start the finals until four. Pm eastern and that locks us out of results. We will mop up here next week. Bikes well canadian superbike. Let's finish off season opener at cama. Bogey auto all for city news one on one one. Fm and thirteen am quebec teen sensation. Eighteen year young. Alex duma's swept the weekend. Both wins on. His suzuki tremendous work young man. We're going to get alexander show soon for sure faces in the pits august. last year. We interviewed jeffrey campbell with oral station road course development north of toronto sports net five ninety-two fan. Here's some good news there four k. Track approved by the faa. Hurry they can. I'll go ahead and paver little sidebar at this location. Our partners subaru. Canada had rally champ antoine moustache on the track in the dirt prior to paving doing an event with sport. Driving canada with subaru. Wrx sti we will stay connected as things progress with station. Also keeping our eyes peeled on the new rocky mountain motorsports park facility in carstairs. Alberta were sports net nine. Sixty the fan calgary and coming up on a couple of weeks or pal. Todd lewis is going to update us on the avian r. s. one series that runs area twenty-seven motorsports park and oliver bc for sports net. Six fifty vancouver. We are all over these new facilities as we should be and race. Line congrats. going. To nascar's kyle larson again demonstrating his sprint car. Prowess winning the thirty. Seventh king's royal al. Dora speedway billed as north america's richest sprint car race. And that's it for this week on the race. Wrap your questions opinions comments and headlines and stories of the news openly encouraged on this program. Show you're racing thoughts and opinions on issues in stories with your fellow gear..