Mikkelsen's Career and Co-drivers

[RS]

On the other hand I would bet Mikkelsen won't continue in VW if he doesn't improve reasonably. For some reason it looks like he stopped progressing two or three years back.

He was very disappointing on Monte but I thought last year he showed a mature and reliable performance generally. I just hope he ups the speed this year...

But I also want to add that I don't think VW respect the importance of the co-driver enough. Splitting up Mikelssen and Floene, who had driven together for years with success probably set Andreas back a bit and I doubt it helped Hanninen on his Focus outings last year either.

I think we can see how important this relationship is from how angry Kubica was about losing Baran before Rally GB last year. Also recently we can see that Neuville is doing a little better with Gilsoul, I think Nagle will be better at keeping Meeke "under control" and I think Kopecky stepped up a gear with Dresler by his side too.

Anyway, we had better get this thread back on topic before we get a bollocking from AFF :D

[liposh]

Mikelsen and Floene were splitted in my opinion because of EVEN motorsport. EVEN motorsport wanted Pontus Tidemand to step up.

[KiwiWRCfan]

Mikkelsen has tweeted earlier today that it is his plan to be on the podium in Sweden. Will we see the performance step up in 2 weeks time ?

[Rallyper]

Last three posts could be moved to the more accurate topic on this forum? What does moderator think?

[dimviii]

Mikkelsen has tweeted earlier today that it is his plan to be on the podium in Sweden. Will we see the performance step up in 2 weeks time ?

i dont think so.Too many competitors for top 3.Ogier,Latvala,Ostberg,Mikko.If all of them finish the rally can t see Mikkelsen on top 3

[Mintexmemory]

Taking this out of the Mikko (career disappearing down the plughole) thread.
For what it's worth I believe VW though Ola didn't fit their age profile - very short sighted and clearly a great asset now to Pontus.

[Rallyper]

Not defending my new started thread. Only wondering why this one´s necessary, when we have a thread about current WRC drivers??

[Mintexmemory]

Not defending my new started thread. Only wondering why this one´s necessary, when we have a thread about current WRC drivers??
Because it is a specific debate, which interestingly was further highlighted by Mikkelsens lacklustre performance on RMC - Melicharek looked just as quick!!

[Mad cat jnr]

Personally I think Mikklesen will shine this year, VW arent stupid enough to let him run before he can walk and his natural surface is Gravel, so Sweden on should be his aim

[Simmi]

I'll start to really judge him once he starts doing the rounds he did last year in the Polo.

But even then you see guys hop into lesser machinery with limited testing and go quicker. So it's hard to defend sometimes.

Lots of talk about gaining experience, but the amount of rallies he's had in a WRC car he should be higher than his level.

[N.O.T]

I remember 2 years back mikkelsen challenging Ogier in the Skoda... but the Big league separates the chaff from the wheat... Mikkelsen is ok, he does not waste the seat and he doesn't need to rush things since Latvala is in the team holding that 2nd seat. I would give him 2 more years then he should be a regular podium and stage winner if he wants to advance and not spend daddys money.

[stefanvv]

He showed some good pace last year occasionally and won some stages here and there. He wasn't shining at Monte, but had his moments too, podium place on the monster 49km stage if I'm not mistaken, very difficult stage. I wouldn't draw him out just yet. Probably second part of the season we'll see some major improvement.

[Rallyper]

Real drivers shine at most directly and are easy to spot. Mikkelsen seems not to be one, but could very well be top five without shining bright.

[dimviii]

the bad about Mikkelsen is not his speed,but that you see so much mistakes/wrong lines for his speed.

[marcosg]

when I have doubts about his speed/capabilities I tend to remember the Circuit of Ireland 2012...

[Munkvy]

He did make some comments before/during RMC about having to get through as he failed to finish last year. So I wonder if he deliberately dialed things back a bit?

As for last year, I think he started to show some improvement towards the end of last year and I do like the guy and wish him the best. But I always saw him as the weaker, younger member of the Skoda team who never quite developed to truly take on the experienced master that Juho was. So I wasn't sure if he was quite upto the WRC car as he never hit that final progression. But then in saying that, he did spend a year competing with Ogier and wasn't far behind.

However, as others have said - WRC is a whole different kettle of fish compared to an S2000. Paddon's comments about the difference driving a WRC vs S2000 car for the first time are a good example of how you appear to have to alter driving style to suit the car design somewhat. So perhaps Mikkelsen got comfortable in the S2000 and found it's limits, but has not yet managed to in the WRC car?

[CWJ]

Mikk has the speed. He is unfortu clear 3rd driver, hast to test and to deliver informations. 10 days test a year only. He drove tyre combinations at the rally he never drove bevore. His RNC got earlyest time window to deliver complete informations to VW so he never got correct notes esp. at the first day and parts of third day. He's coming back soon I think.

[RS]

However, as others have said - WRC is a whole different kettle of fish compared to an S2000. Paddon's comments about the difference driving a WRC vs S2000 car for the first time are a good example of how you appear to have to alter driving style to suit the car design somewhat.

I think that has as much to do with the Fiesta being a big floaty hovercraft type thing rather than any difference between WRC and S2000 per se. (after all they are based on the same rules apart from engine)

[Mirek]

I also think it has more to do with difference between Škoda/M-Sport design than with WRC/S2000. Fabia and Fiesta are fundamentally different as S2000 too, definitely more than Fiesta S2000 to Fiesta WRC/RRC.

[Juha_Koo]

Hänninen said that after Fabia the Fiesta swinged so much that he almost became sea sick. :D

[RS]

Hänninen said that after Fabia the Fiesta swinged so much that he almost became sea sick. :D

Hehe :)

It is quite interesting that cars running to the same rules can be so different. I think Paddon would have found as much difference between the chassis of the Fiesta and the DS3 WRCs as he did between the Fabia and Fiesta. The DS3 seems to be a much sharper more go-carty style car than the Fiesta.

It seems perhaps the Fiesta is easier to adapt to, Kubica made some comments to that effect after Janner and Bouffier was arguably better on Monte this year than last despite it being his first experience of the Fiesta.

[eppel]

Mikkelsen was in Oslo today for the start of Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. He told TV8 that he could be interested to do the historic rally when he is getting older..

Watch the interview with him her:
http://bit.ly/1dYf8FE

[Sulland]

The reason given when Mikkelsen switched co-driver when he got the VW contract, was that Ola wanted more time at home, and would not commit to a full WRC program for many years to come.

Valid point of view in my opinion!

[Juha_Koo]

The reason given when Mikkelsen switched co-driver when he got the VW contract, was that Ola wanted more time at home, and would not commit to a full WRC program for many years to come.

Valid point of view in my opinion!

It's clear this was not the case if you have seen the interview of Floene in IRC Cyprus service park after the rally was over. He didn't want to comment the matter straight, but made very clear that he would have wanted to continue.

[RS]

The reason given when Mikkelsen switched co-driver when he got the VW contract, was that Ola wanted more time at home, and would not commit to a full WRC program for many years to come.

Valid point of view in my opinion!

It's clear this was not the case if you have seen the interview of Floene in IRC Cyprus service park after the rally was over. He didn't want to comment the matter straight, but made very clear that he would have wanted to continue.

Both could be true; maybe VW demanded someone committed for a number of years and Floene said he would only want to do a couple?

But I find is strange that a co-driver who had "grown-up" with a young driver wouldn't want to join him when he got his big break.

I don't think a manufacturer should interfere with this relationship really, unless something clearly wasn't working.

[liposh]

Why do you all think about such conspiracy theories? As I said before, in my opinion EVEN motorsport needed Ola Floene to help Pontus Tidemand. It wasn´t VW decision. My theory makes sense.

[SubaruNorway]

It was VW who thought he was to old as Ola said he wanted to keep going for another 3-5 years which VW didn't like.
Funny enough Ola became Junior World Champion the next year :)

[Mirek]

Why do you all think about such conspiracy theories? As I said before, in my opinion EVEN motorsport needed Ola Floene to help Pontus Tidemand. It wasn´t VW decision. My theory makes sense.

The problem is that You think Your theory makes sense...


It was VW who thought he was to old as Ola said he wanted to keep going for another 3-5 years which VW didn't like.
Funny enough Ola became Junior World Champion the next year :)

You have probably better information but I heard the same...

[Gard]

Mikkelsen's outspoken goal, has been to win the 2015 championship. That means he has got to get podiums regurarly this year

[Mintexmemory]

Mikkelsen's outspoken goal, has been to win the 2015 championship. That means he has got to get podiums regurarly this year

I presume he made that statement before VW signed Ogier. It really is no contest, the occasional matching of Ogier's times in the Fabia are misleading IMVHO. Ogier was rally condition destruction testing for most of the year. When it really mattered Ogier could pull performances like the Sardinian stage win out of the bag. This also takes no account of Neuville, Latvala, Ostberg and Meeke, all of whom are currently better all-round packages

[Viking]

It seems that Jost Capito thinks Andreas is doing ok...

Q:
We saw good stage times from Andreas last year, but this is the first time we have seen him fighting consistently at the top of the field. Are we going to see more of that, Jost?
JC:
Yeah, I’m sure. Last year was really the learning year for Andreas. Sebastien [Ogier] had 10,000 kilometres of testing in 2012 for 2013, so he was by far in the best position and then Jari-Matti had quite a lot of test when he joined, but Andreas had the minimum test and – you know – there are not a lot of test days allowed each year. He had his first rally starting in the middle of the season and he had much less experience. It was a learning year for him last year, some events he had more experience than others and some less or none. He did a fantastic job learning last year and this year we said that where he is confident and he has done a couple of times then he can fight for the podium. Sweden was the first of these and I think he has done a fantastic job, not just fighting for the podium, but also for the victory. What’s very impressive is that this is not a result which was given to him by failure or mistakes of others, he was fighting from the beginning – setting the fastest time in the first stage – and then he was on the top all of the weekend. That was much more than we have thought and we have expected a lot of him this weekend, but it was much more [that he delivered] and everybody in the team has been impressed by his performance.

[Juha_Koo]

Mexico will be a bit more difficult for Mikkelsen, as he doesn't have competitive experience from there (didn't he do recce last year?) but I'm waiting again a flash of speed in Portugal...

[ironseb]

Mikkelsen is always fast in Sweden... I hope it will be the same next events.

[eppel]

Right before Sweden the local-TV-station in Oslo, TV8 Oslo, had a 15 minutes interview with Mikkelsen about his career. He also showed that video analysis is an important tool in the preparations.

Her is the link:
http://bit.ly/1eliH4C