MANAGING THE TITLE CHALLENGERS
With two events left on the current 2020 WRC calendar, five drivers have a chance to be crowned champion. That’s more than NASCAR will create through its stage-managed playoffs and more than F1 has mustered in recent years.
It can also be considered as a considerable test of the team principals, Toyota’s Tommi Makinen and Hyundai’s Andrea Adamo, to maintain order.
Many felt that Hyundai’s new signing for 2020, reigning champion Ott Tanak, would move swiftly to assert himself over Thierry Neuville, who in recent years had enjoyed the luxury of a rotating line-up alongside him that limited pressure from within the team.
The Belgian has instead weathered this Estonian storm with a spring in his step. Conversely, if Tanak’s frustration with his broken steering in Turkey was self-evident, then he really became animated after leaving the door open for Neuville on the powerstage.
Sardinia next month will be crucial if Hyundai is to take the initiative in the manufacturers’ championship. It will likely be Adamo’s main job to keep both men focused rather than pushing one another into a costly mistake.
After that will come the finale in
Ypres, where Neuville may just struggle to hear any instruction to help Tanak in front of his adoring home fans.
At Toyota, meanwhile, the 18-point gap enjoyed by Elfyn Evans over Sebastien Ogier is possibly the biggest surprise within a WRC team since
Timo Salonen pulled clear of Ari
Vatanen at Peugeot in 1985.
Of the 75 stages that both men have completed in 2020, Ogier has beaten Evans in 43 of them. The final afternoon in Marmaris has now handed a golden opportunity to the Welshman that he is clearly capable of bringing home.
Evans will initially be forced to clean the road for Ogier in Italy. After that he will have to choose whether to pace himself as per Turkey, or to jump in with both feet and take the fight to
Ogier and the Hyundais. A strong finish could remove much of the pressure before this season’s finale.
Kalle Rovanpera is the other contender and he radiates desire for a WRC win before the end of his debut season. If that can be tempered and focused towards supporting rather than challenging his team-mates, Makinen’s grasp on the manufacturers’ crown will grow considerably.
The drivers will undoubtedly dominate the headlines, but Adamo versus Makinen promises an equally engrossing storyline.