Andreas Mikkelsen describes what he would take from the EC series and his future with the painful World Series. He was impressed by his ex-teammate Jari-Matti Latvala’s performance in the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship.
Discussions about the future of the World Rally Championship have heated up over the summer. There are currently only two factory teams in the series: Toyota and Hyundai.
At the same time, the future rules are still unclear. The current rules are valid until the end of next year, and the new rules have not yet been locked in place.
This summer, several drivers have presented their proposed changes. The sharpest comments were heard in June from Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who proposed a two-day Finnish World Rally Championship.
When Urheilu asked the drivers about the current state of the World Series before the World Rally Championship held in Jyväskylä, the Estonian star Ott Tänak fired a harsh text and gave the whole series a death warning.
The problems mostly concern the main class. For example, in Jyväskylä there was a tough fight in the WRC2 class.
In Jyväskylä there were no less than 37 cars and practically all the best drivers in the WRC2 class.
One of them was a Norwegian hero Andreas Mikkelsen. The weekend tinged with difficulties ended for Mikkelsen as the fifth best R5 car.
Mikkelsen missed out on the best R5 car From Oliver Solberg two minutes.
When discussing the future of the World Rally Championship, there has been a lot of talk about costs. The current rally1 car costs an estimated one million euros. The lower class R5 cars are considerably more compact.
– I think it would be interesting if in the future there was an intermediate model between the current rally1 car and the R5 car. Seeing the number of drivers in WRC2 battles, imagine how interesting it would be if everyone was in those cars. There would be a street fight. It would be incredible, Mikkelsen told Urheilu in Jyväskylä.
Mikkelsen’s opinion on the future of the World Rally Championship is interesting in the sense that the champion has driven the World Rally Championship alongside the World Series. In 2021, Mikkelsen won both the WRC2 class in the World Series and the European Championship.
Before the race weekend, about Finnish drivers Teemu Suninen said that at the moment he would like to watch the rally EC series. Suninen referred to how up to 15 different drivers can win in the EC series.
Mikkelsen would also be fascinated to see a competition format similar to the European Championship in the World Series.
– The format of the EC series is really nice. Two days full of action. In the World Series, it often happens that by the third day big differences have formed. Then everyone just drives in their own places. When there are two days, the differences are not so big.
Mikkelsen would see that there would be a good upheaval from the EC series to the WC series.
– Now we are driving for three long days. I believe that people want short-term and quick action. I think it would be interesting if we went towards a format of two race days and full noise, Mikkelsen described.
Mikkelsen is not stressed about his future – Latvala was impressed
The three-time World Championship winner lost his driving seat in the main class of the World Rally Championship at the end of 2019. Several rally media reported at the end of last year that Mikkelsen was already getting a driving seat from Hyundai for this season. Mikkelsen described that he already had a verbally agreed contract with Hyundai. Esapekka Lappi however, edged out the Norwegian.
Now Mikkelsen is calm about his chances to return to the main class of the World Championship.
– Of course we’re trying to get back to the main category, but it’s difficult. I don’t know if that will happen or not. To be honest, I’m pretty relaxed about it now. The situation looks difficult, but you never know, Mikkelsen said.
When the top drivers drove to the yard in slippery conditions, one topic of conversation emerged from the competition above all others. Toyota team manager Jari-Matti Latvala return as a driver for one race. Latvala certainly drove fifth and shot at the finish line of the special stages while laughing at comments that surely put a smile on many people’s faces.
Mikkelsen was Latvala’s teammate in the first half of the 2010s at the successful team Volkswagen.
On Friday, Mikkelsen had a special test in Jyväskylä relatively at the same time as his former teammate. The Norwegian had also paid attention to Latvala’s more relaxed nature than before.
– That’s normal when you think about what he gets paid for. This weekend, his intention was to enjoy himself, not to bring a result to the team. Jari-Matti succeeded well in that, Mikkelsen said.
However, Latvala didn’t just run around in bits and pieces. In practice, the Finn was 0.5–0.75 seconds behind the leader in the special test. However, Latvala clearly beat the R5 cars and in some special tests also the rally1 drivers by Pierre-Louis Loubet.
– It was really nice to see Jari-Matti wearing a driving suit. He’s still fast enough. He is still forging good lap times. He could still be a driver as much as a team manager, Mikkelsen incensed.