Pons returns

[c4]

Xevi to return in S14 later in year, for more crashes and tantrums?
http://wrc.com/jsp/index.jsp?lnk=101&id=202&desc=Xevi Pons plans WRC return in 2008

[Buzz Lightyear]

cant wait :crazy:

[Lalo]

I just hope he can perform as he did in Finland last year. After that, he crashed on every rally. He's only gonna test the strenth of the car against trees.

Subaru can't afford a dummy doll? (Somebody call Buster from "Mythbusters"!)

[ste898]

People slag of Matt Wilson on here and yet this numb head Pons is welcomed back to WRC!!!!!

[DonJippo]

People slag of Matt Wilson on here and yet this numb head Pons is welcomed back to WRC!!!!!

By whom?

[Shrike]

I like Matty more than I like Ponsy.

[Tom206wrc]

Strange...he has been fired by Subaru(Prodrive)and he still wants to drive a Subaru ??? :s

[ARF]

How did Subaru fire him? He was (and still is) a paying driver for god sakes, he chooses where to drive or where not :)
And for the time being, he chose not to drive with the S12B and wait for the probably more competitive S14.

[grugsticles]

How did Subaru fire him? He was (and still is) a paying driver for god sakes, he chooses where to drive or where not :)
And for the time being, he chose not to drive with the S12B and wait for the probably more competitive S14.
So thas the reason we didnt see him in MC? He decided not to drive?

Interesting...

[L5->R5/CR]

So thas the reason we didnt see him in MC? He decided not to drive?

Interesting...



I believe the official reason was that there was no agreement in place to run a car for Pons.

Most take that to mean that Pons's backers either didn't want to waste more money on Pons, or on the Subaru.

[jonas_mcrae]

Also Amigo is retiring, got tired of the abuse?? Of course Xevi is not very good and I know a lot of people dont like him but still I think he is waay better that Wilson or Rautenbach. And he IS paying so he is not taking any body's seat. The only reason I kindda like him is because last year in Spain he was pushing as hell, really nice to watch!

[Roy]

Strange...he has been fired by Subaru(Prodrive)and he still wants to drive a Subaru ??? :s

Fired :confused: There was no agreement yet. Now it is. He was always welcome, with his money.

[Josti]

People slag of Matt Wilson on here and yet this numb head Pons is welcomed back to WRC!!!!!

Aren't you kind of doing the same on Pons?

I don't see a warm welcome here btw, just a little newsflash.

[SubaruNorway]

bring him back, good fun to watch aint he?

[COD]

They probably made good decision to pay Subaru only when they get a competitive car. Besides, allways exiting in-car videos from tv when he is driving.

[WRXedUSA]

Strange...he has been fired by Subaru(Prodrive)and he still wants to drive a Subaru ??? :s

He wasnt fired. He's buying his ride, like all the other rich kids do.

SWRT should understand that the doorknob is not a test platform, but rather a huge distraction.

Xevi Pons: "Largest Distributor of Used Subaru Parts. Since 2007"

[leno]

if i understand right he is paying to swrt for a seat and he chose which rallies will he drive???

[Mickey T]

They probably made good decision to pay Subaru only when they get a competitive car. Besides, allways exiting in-car videos from tv when he is driving.

you get the Most Insightful Post on the Thread award!

It's true that Xevi was a paying driver at Subaru, but i don't think he's a bad driver at all and, unlike other spaniards in the WRC, he's not a tarmac specialist.

the car he drove last year was difficult for all of its drivers to manage for reasons that have been well documented.

While he might see a future with Subaru for his own reasons, i can't blame him for not wanting to throw more money away on driving a current Impreza that he really doesn't like driving.

On the same topic, i'm really sorry to see Amigo retiring so young. I understand his reasons, but he's actually a pretty good guy and he will be missed in the service area.

[leno]

So we can't expect him on rallies before s14 comes out?

[tmx]

i think pons is a better gravel driver than sordo. but to get a good result, everything have to go perfectly for him. when he gets frustrated thing can go wrong. same for jari.

[Tom206wrc]

OK I thought it was decision of SWRT not to renew contract with Pons... ;)

[L5->R5/CR]

OK I thought it was decision of SWRT not to renew contract with Pons... ;)



Or maybe it was the decision of SWRT to ask for more money since Pons was proving to be such a useless customer...

I don't think there is a real scenario in which SWRT wouldn't have accepted Pons's money as long as the sum was large enough.

Instead, I'd imagine it went more along the lines of SWRT thought they might get some sort of feedback from Pons (especially since he had so much experience in the Citroens), so they made a deal happen. Pons then crashed, and proved the only thing he was good for was keeping the mechanics busy so SWRT said if he was going to keep driving, and crashing, they needed more money. Pons didn't have more money to spend on the S12B so there was no agreement for the start of 2008 and he is waiting for the S14 to start spending his funding again...

[COD]

you get the Most Insightful Post on the Thread award!

It's true that Xevi was a paying driver at Subaru, but i don't think he's a bad driver at all and, unlike other spaniards in the WRC, he's not a tarmac specialist.

the car he drove last year was difficult for all of its drivers to manage for reasons that have been well documented.

While he might see a future with Subaru for his own reasons, i can't blame him for not wanting to throw more money away on driving a current Impreza that he really doesn't like driving.

On the same topic, i'm really sorry to see Amigo retiring so young. I understand his reasons, but he's actually a pretty good guy and he will be missed in the service area.

Did I piss on your breakfast? Where in my post did I say he was a bad driver???

[koko0703]

Or maybe it was the decision of SWRT to ask for more money since Pons was proving to be such a useless customer...

I don't think there is a real scenario in which SWRT wouldn't have accepted Pons's money as long as the sum was large enough.

Instead, I'd imagine it went more along the lines of SWRT thought they might get some sort of feedback from Pons (especially since he had so much experience in the Citroens), so they made a deal happen. Pons then crashed, and proved the only thing he was good for was keeping the mechanics busy so SWRT said if he was going to keep driving, and crashing, they needed more money. Pons didn't have more money to spend on the S12B so there was no agreement for the start of 2008 and he is waiting for the S14 to start spending his funding again...

Initially, Pons's contract with SWRT included later half of 2007 and 2008 with Subaru having option to retain him for 2009. (See SWRT press release http://www.swrt.com/news/latest_news.html?id=1272) However at the end of 2007, Pons's sponsor(s) pulled out maybe because of his performance in 2007. As a result, no money goes to Subaru and no car for Pons at Monte.

Now it sounds like Pons found some money to compete some events and looks like he has chosen to wait a little bit for the new car. Yeah, why not??? If you pay for your ride, why would you pay for the car whose development has stopped already??? Since he was supposed to drive all 2008 (if he didn't run out of money), SWRT should be able to support 3 car team. The question now is, with all the development work is going on, can they get 3 of new cars ready???

[Mickey T]

Did I piss on your breakfast? Where in my post did I say he was a bad driver???

it was a compliment for cutting through all the speculation on here...

you didn't say he was a poor driver. others on here did.

he's actually quite well regarded within Subaru, in spite of what you'll read from some on this thread.