Atkos Best Drive?

[duff]

In my opinion - Yes.

Obviously he lost a bit of pace on Friday but when you look at the times that he took out of his rivals on day 2 (1 +min out of Henning, 45+ secs out of Sordo, 1 min out of Petter) you see how much he out drove them all by, especially his team mate.
Sure he wasn't on the pace of the two leaders but they were driving out of this world... and atko is in the Subaru!

A fine performance on the world’s most demanding stages.

[N.O.T]

hmmm i think atko had quite good runs throught the year.... Sordo i think backed off a bit to avoid a retirement and lost points for the team, but i think that Atko could stand as a 2nd-3rd driver in ford or citroen and he could definately lead one of the M2 ones. The subaru seems to cap his abilities....it would be nice to see him drive a winning car to see what he is really made of.

[Minke]

So where will Atko be next year? isn't his contract up and the end of '08?

[pino]

I hate to say it ;) but right now He's a better driver than Petter, and I am very glad he finished on podium ! :up:

[Viking]

So where will Atko be next year? isn't his contract up and the end of '08?

Both Atko and Petter have contracts that ends in 2009.

[turves]

My understanding is that Petter also had clutch problems, not to take anything away from Chris. I thought he put in a great drive.

[jonkka]

Both Atko and Petter have contracts that ends in 2009.

wrc.com says:
In 2006 Atkinson signed a contract extension with Subaru, which means the Aussie will be present in the championship with team in 2008.

http://www.wrc.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=501&featureid=126&desc=Chris%20Atkinson%20-%20Subaru

[Anti-Lag-Rocks]

I think it is one of his best drives and a really incredible climb up the leaderboard. People forget how hard it is to move places in Finland, especially to go from as low as 09th on Friday to the podium on Sunday, and to beat proven machinery (Ford & Citroen) in a development car. Outstanding!

I was worried that Chris was not doing himself any favours for his future for a while, but I do think he is going to be an 'in demand' driver after his performance this year.

[Viking]

wrc.com says:
In 2006 Atkinson signed a contract extension with Subaru, which means the Aussie will be present in the championship with team in 2008.

http://www.wrc.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=501&featureid=126&desc=Chris%20Atkinson%20-%20Subaru

He extendet it again in 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/world_rally/6983414.stm

[Anderton]

This is by far Atkinsons best year, even outperforming Petter in my opinion. Don't think it will be long untill we see a rally win from him.

[Minke]

This is by far Atkinsons best year, even outperforming Petter in my opinion. Don't think it will be long untill we see a rally win from him.

i agree.... but in what car?

[White Sauron]

i agree.... but in what car?

Ford Focus. Put him instead of Latvala. He deserves this 2nd place much more!

[Anderton]

Latvala is on the same par as Atko i think, they are pretty equal in their rallying talent, although Atkinson is much mroe consistent. It seems Latvala is pushing way too hard at the moment.

[koko0703]

I think the couple podiums earlier this season really gave Chris much needed confidence, and now he gets most out of what he has without throwing away everything. I love to see him bringing Subaru back to the top but the question is how long Chris can be patient with Subaru. I'm sure other teams will be interested in his service next year.

[Buzz Lightyear]

Atkinson is starting to show the raw speed he did when he first arrived, but then Solberg was no1, and its taken 3 years for atkinson force his setup style onto the team. The star of Solberg is fading, similar to Colin... the pace drifts away, and they start blaming everything but themselves.

[Tomi]

good driving of atkinson, our rallyradio already called him subarus first driver.

[leno]

atko is subaru future :D

[DonJippo]

good driving of atkinson, our rallyradio already called him subarus first driver.

He surely was Subaru's #1 in NORF no question about that.

[Finni]

In my view Atkinson could challenge almost anyone nowadays. Subaru just is not easy place to any demonstration.

[Daniel]

Ford Focus. Put him instead of Latvala. He deserves this 2nd place much more!
I would say put him in instead of Mikko. Mikko is good but he has peaked. He's great 2nd driver material but I think Chris is a better 2nd driver.

[grugsticles]

You know its funny, there seemed to be a period about 12 months ago where Chris was labeled by the public as a crasher and possibly not deserving of a WRC drive. I too thought that perhaps I was biased towards him (being Australian and all). But I'm glad that he has managed to turn it around.

Given his current form and a competitive car I'm sure he would be able to mix it with the likes of the Group A and early WRCar stars in their hay day (Makinen, McRae, Burns, Gronholm, Kaukkanen etc.). Perhaps he wouldnt have been a stand out, but hed definatly be a chance for victory.

I also agree with Pino's comment on Chris being a better driver than Petter atm. Overall, I'd say Petter is faster on his day but I think the ruomurs of the Petter/SWRT unrest has to have some truth to it and that is adversly affecting his speed. Chris seems to be able to ignore it and concentrate on his driving giving him results.

In any case, GO ATKO!!!

[jonkka]

In my view Atkinson could challenge almost anyone nowadays. Subaru just is not easy place to any demonstration.

Given Chris' stage times towards the end of the rally, I'd be cautiously optimistic about Subaru getting better. It'll be interesting to see in Deutschland if their claims about tarmac performance are correct...

[tmx]

nah i dont think chris can simply replace latvala, latvala speed is something else, even loeb said so. chris has been more consistent lately is why he gets podium, even though yes he is quick sometimes. must be atleast something about stephen prevot influences on him too. i remembered someone here said stephen prevot is the patron saint of bad luck. (will you people stop calling him dudu, gezz.) this is why i don't want to make any conclusion about any driver too early, dani sordo speed blew me away in jordan.

[Anderton]

Given Chris' stage times towards the end of the rally, I'd be cautiously optimistic about Subaru getting better. It'll be interesting to see in Deutschland if their claims about tarmac performance are correct...
I've actually got my money on Atkinson getting another 3rd place finish in Germany. He is literally leading the way for Subaru at the moment.

[Finni]

Chris Biewer's comment on the same issue:

"Only a couple of years ago I defended Petter tooth and nail as being the best driver there is alongside Loeb. I seriously rated him higher than Grönholm. Petter's performances went down as the Subaru increasingly lost competitiveness agains Citroen and Ford. At the same time Chris is getting better and better. I find it hard to believe Petter lost his talent. Leaves the question: How bad is that Subaru really and how good is Chris really?"

[Daniel]

nah i dont think chris can simply replace latvala, latvala speed is something else, even loeb said so. chris has been more consistent lately is why he gets podium, even though yes he is quick sometimes. must be atleast something about stephen prevot influences on him too. i remembered someone here said stephen prevot is the patron saint of bad luck. (will you people stop calling him dudu, gezz.) this is why i don't want to make any conclusion about any driver too early, dani sordo speed blew me away in jordan.

Duval make his own bad luck. Since MacNeal is gone Chris is clearly doing better. Chris is driving the same way he used to drive back in Australia. Fast and consistent. He's kind of a slightly slower Loeb rather than someone like Latvala who has tonnes of speed but lacks consistency. Put him in a Focus or C4 and the guy will win rallies or at the very least be fighting for victories.

[Viking]

I think Petter needs some defending here :)

After New car arrival Impreza wrc 2008

Teammates Petter-Atko 2-1

Driver points taken: Petter 14, Atko 6 , same for manu points.

Chris has upper hand in Germany, Petter has never done well there.

[Tomi]

Chris Biewer's comment on the same issue:

"Only a couple of years ago I defended Petter tooth and nail as being the best driver there is alongside Loeb. I seriously rated him higher than Grönholm. Petter's performances went down as the Subaru increasingly lost competitiveness agains Citroen and Ford. At the same time Chris is getting better and better. I find it hard to believe Petter lost his talent. Leaves the question: How bad is that Subaru really and how good is Chris really?"

It's difficult to say who is the best driver unless they drives the same car, if i remember correct so did Chris rank Burns above Grönholm too, until he joined Peugeot. But now it sure looks that Atkinson is ahead of Petter and has been for a while already.

[cali]

It's difficult to say who is the best driver unless they drives the same car, if i remember correct so did Chris rank Burns above Grönholm too, until he joined Peugeot. But now it sure looks that Atkinson is ahead of Petter and has been for a while already.

And even then you get unprecise answer because it comes down to how some car feels to certain driver, setups etc. It is just more than that we put all the drivers into same cars. Even Loeb can be crap when he does not feel comfortable with driving Focus. Theoretically speaking. Märtin was fantastic with 2003 Focus, while horrible in a whale, Mcrae was fantastic driving Subie and Focus, while not doing so good in a Citroen, Makinen was great driving Lancer, while being really outperformed by Petter in a Subie. This list can go on and on. You have to understand that those drivers mentioned earlier had been successful when those cars were built according to their wishes and driving style.

So i cannot fully agree with you! :)

But Chris is doing really fine and i'm hoping to see even better performance from him as the season goes on.

[Brother John]

I think Petter needs some defending here :)
After New car arrival Impreza wrc 2008
Teammates Petter-Atko 2-1
Driver points taken: Petter 14, Atko 6 , same for manu points.
Chris has upper hand in Germany, Petter has never done well there.

It seems his problem is to be fast for a complete rally.
Fast and consistently that is what he need instead of pretending and show the people that he still is the super star from WRC, and this after a fast time on the super Special stage on Friday, still before the rally really must start. :o

Back to Chris, he improved a lot and must replace nobody in a another team such as you can read here on the forum. :rolleyes:
We will see, however, to what the future brings for him.

[DonJippo]

You have to understand that those drivers mentioned earlier had been successful when those cars were built according to their wishes and driving style.

I think this myth about cars being build for a certain driver should be long gone, if that was the case for example why did Peugeot build 307 WRC? Bosse did hate it from the day one or was it meant to be for someone else?

[Buzz Lightyear]

I think this myth about cars being build for a certain driver should be long gone, if that was the case for example why did Peugeot build 307 WRC? Bosse did hate it from the day one or was it meant to be for someone else?

it more to do with the lead driver setting the car upto his liking, and if it works for him, it should work for his team-mate. wrrrrongggggg.

[DonJippo]

it more to do with the lead driver setting the car upto his liking, and if it works for him, it should work for his team-mate. wrrrrongggggg.

Not quite, each driver has their own set-ups what they use that's why teams have test sessions for both their drivers and not just for #1.

[cali]

Not quite, each driver has their own set-ups what they use that's why teams have test sessions for both their drivers and not just for #1.

Usually cars have been built within cooperation between engineers, drivers and with other imoprtant staff included. Remember the time Loriaux built the 2003 Focus, it was mostly down to Markko's feedback (wishes) then.

[Daniel]

What Buzz and Cali are describing is what happened at Mitsubishi in the late 90's when Tommi was dominating the championship. Now some say that Mitsubishi didn't simply build a car for Tommi and that the others just weren't that great. Whatever you believe it's hard to fathom why Subaru would build the team and car around a guy who has never taken a win, let alone a title as Petter has done.

I simply don't see Subaru building the team around Chris and shutting out Petter..... come on! We all know how fast Petter is and how when the car is performing how he is up there with the top drivers. Subaru haven't made the car for Atkinson, Petter has simply lost his mojo and has forgotten how to drive like a winner.

DonJippo is perfectly right, both drivers get the chance to test and adapt setting to their liking. Petter is simply not doing this as well as Chris. Cali's example of Markko is a funny one. I seem to remember Duval doing quite well in the Ford Focus 03. The reason why Markko did the bulk of testing was because when compared to Duval he is a much more complete driver and you have to remember that Colin and Carlos were out the team at the end of 02 when the car was being developed.

[Tomi]

Even Loeb can be crap when he does not feel comfortable with driving Focus.

Yes maybe for 1-2 rallies, after that the car propably would be the way he like it, Vatanen also was very good in Ford many years ago, but now propably not.

[Mickey T]

I think Petter needs some defending here :)

After New car arrival Impreza wrc 2008

Teammates Petter-Atko 2-1

Driver points taken: Petter 14, Atko 6 , same for manu points.

Chris has upper hand in Germany, Petter has never done well there.

that's an incredibly selective "analysis" that completely fails to account for non-driver related mechanical and teething issues on the new car, almost all of which have arrived on chris's car...

...even in finland.

[duff]

C'mon Mickey T - spill it for us...
you know you want to...

[Viking]

that's an incredibly selective "analysis" .
Nope, covers all rallys done with wrc2008 :)


that completely fails to account for non-driver related mechanical and teething issues on the new car.
Yes, wrc points works like that


almost all of which have arrived on chris's car.
Nah, Petter has had lots of problems, but Chris has got (and made) the bigger ones yes.

[cali]

Yes maybe for 1-2 rallies, after that the car propably would be the way he like it, Vatanen also was very good in Ford many years ago, but now propably not.

Until this has not happened, we do not know. At the moment it is just guessing :)

It has got a little bit OT now, so let's go back to Chris... ;)

[Viking]

Don’t get me wrong, I think Chris has improved a lot and that he and Petter is really close levelled as drivers now. Chris is the younger of them so he is the future.
But I don’t think Finland was his best rally, my wote goes to Monte this year :up: