RallySport Magazine December 2016

ALL FINNISH AFFAIR
Toyota has snapped up Finnish star Jari-Matti Latvala
to lead its return to the World Rally Championship,
confirming another key move in the sport’s
biggest driver shake-up in years, just five weeks before
the 2017 season starts.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s signing of Latvala and new
WRC2 champion, Esapekka Lappi, to join existing team
member, Juho Hänninen, was announced in Finland on
December 13.
L ro R: Janne Ferm, Kaj Lindström, Mikka Anttila, Jari-Matti Latvala, Juho
Hänninen, Esapekka Lappi and Tommi Mäkinen.
OGIER COULD JOIN THE WRC GREATS
At the completion of the
2017 season we may finally
have more of an idea as to
whether Sebastien Ogier
deserves to be ranked higher on the ‘all
time greats’ list than his countryman,
Sebastien Loeb.
Now before you rightly point out that
Loeb has won more than twice as many
WRC titles as Ogier, hear me out.
Many believe Loeb deserves the title
as the best driver of all time, given he’s
won 78 WRC events, yet there’s one
main asterisk against his record.
The man from Alsace only ever drove
for Citroen. All 78 of his wins, all 9 titles,
all 116 podium finishes, and all 905
stage wins came in a Citroen.
Not so Ogier. Already, seven of his 38
wins have been in Citroens, the other
31 in Volkswagens, and with his move
to M-Sport and the Ford Fiesta WRC, he
has the chance to join the rarefied air
of those drivers to have won in three or
more different brands of cars.
Tommi Makinen and Ari Vatanen
won for two different makes. Juha
Kankkunen, Carlos Sainz, Didier
Auriol and Bjorn Waldegard for four.
And the great Hannu Mikkola took
victories for an incredible five different
manufacturers.
If Ogier can join these ranks, having
developed a brand new car for a
new team, then he will deservedly be
spoken about in similar terms as those
legendary drivers above.
Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be
a cracker 2017 season.
- PETER WHITTEN
DECEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 11