I wasn't expecting Toyota to return to rallying - by comparison to the embarrassingly badly kept secret that they were heading to Le Mans, that story kind of flew under the radar. It is at least reassuring to hear that there are manufacturers wanting to join, rather than leave, the world of rallying, but at the same time you wonder whether or not Toyota will have the patience to work their way into producing a competitive car (some of their sojourns, such as in sports car racing, have been very brief affairs).
kostas22 wrote:giraurd wrote:nah, Loeb will be successful no matter what these guys do to the cars.
But even his dominance wouldn't bore me as much if the cars are proper.
I don't believe so. His driving style is based on being smooth and precise. If suddenly this is no longer the fastest way (as it was in the Escort days), he won't beat everyone so easily. Latvala and Solberg will have a field day. If McRae was still around it would suit him perfectly.
The smoothness of Loeb's driving style, for a rally driver, is rather remarkable - it is often cited as the reason why he has also proven to be a very effective closed circuit driver, since his driving style is closer to that than the traditional model for a rally driver. However, the fact that he has been able to switch back and forth between closed circuit racing and rallying does hint at the fact that he is a quite adaptable driver - if the fastest style of driving were to move more towards a "wild and ragged" method, then I expect that, although he might not be quite as dominant, he would still feature fairly prominently.
