A choice finally paying off for Ott Tänak?

Just crowned with the title of 2019 world champion, Ott Tänak avait surpris en quittant le Toyota Gazoo Racing pour Hyundai. Depuis, il n’a jamais réellement expliqué les raisons de cette décision. Celle qui est le plus souvent avancée évoque une mésentente croissante avec Tommi Mäkinen qui était alors le boss chez Toyota. Andrea Adamo, qui dirigeait la structure sportive du géant coréen, avait sans doute aussi dû avoir un discours qui avait plu à Tänak. Les résultats de ce mariage n’ont pas été à la hauteur des espérances et les rapports entre les deux parties sont devenus très compliqués en 2022. Le Balte s’impatientait de plus en plus face à l’immobilisme et la lenteur des décisions. Le voir quitter Hyundai n’a étonné personne, tout comme il n’y a rien eu de nouveau devant ses réticences à commenter les trois années passées en bleu ciel. Son point de chute aussi était assez logique puisqu’il n’avait finalement le choix qu’entre une pause à la maison ou M-Sport.

His return to the cocoon where he grew up and achieved his first world success aroused enthusiasm, because it opened the prospect of having at least one contender for the team title. This came to fruition this winter. In the typical Monte-Carlo circuit conditions, Tänak aimed for the best possible place, lacking too many benchmarks to hope for better. In Sweden, his tactics based on regularity paid off as he won. He is the leader of the championship, but don't tell him that he is now among the favorites, otherwise you will get a scathing rebuke.

There are indeed too many unanswered questions. Lacking resources, the English company has made very few changes to its car compared to the one seen at Monte-Carlo 2022. So far this has not seemed to bother Tänak too much. Will the Cumbria team be able to provide equipment that is both efficient and reliable to the Estonian who can turn out to be irascible when things don't go his way? In Sweden, no one at M-Sport was fooled and Malcolm Wilson immediately recognized that this success was Ott's. So it's good that the car needs to receive some upgrades. The opponents of the 2019 champion will not prove clumsy or inconsistent every time. Kalle Rovanperä will not always have to lead the way and it is certain that the Toyota team will react after the edge fault suffered in Umeå. Tänak's strategy worked in Sweden, but it already has its limits and the Puma urgently needs to be improved.

If the driver from the island of Saaremaa can be satisfied to see that everything is implemented for him and that he constitutes the sole concern of M-Sport, will he nevertheless receive all the changes that he wish ? This is where one of the questions regarding this association lies and Tänak does not want to get carried away. “ Our start to the season is good, perhaps even better than that which we expected. However, there remains a lot of work and everything will depend on what the team will be able to introduce and when. »

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