TANAK CRITICAL OF WRC TEAM ORDERS THAT DENIED ‘FAIR FIGHT’
Ott Tanak says it was a shame to be denied a “fair fight” for the Acropolis
Rally Greece victory after criticising Hyundai Motorsport’s decision to deploy team orders.
Hyundai management elected to impose orders on its drivers Thierry Neuville, Tanak and Dani Sordo to hold position in order to safeguard a historic first World Rally Championship 1-2-3 podium lockout for the marque.
With Rovanpera finishing outside of the points and only picking up four points from the rally-ending powerstage, a victory in Greece on top of his powerstage win could have seen the 2019 world champion close to within 46 points of his rival, with 90 points remaining.
When asked if the team had made the right call, Tanak said it was the “correct call” for the team from a PR perspective: “It depends what is the target. If you are to fight for championship then it was wrong and if you want to have good
PR it is the right decision.
“It depends whose perspective you are looking from. My perspective is I want to fight for the championship, but it is a shame that we couldn’t do it in a fair fight.
“On Friday we were carrying the [broken] hybrid [unit] for nothing and yesterday morning we had other issues so we were not close enough.”
Hyundai deputy team director Julien Moncet said he understood Tanak’s frustrations regarding the decision to hold position, admitting it a was a situation “everyone hates” to be in. “Of course I can understand his frustration,” Moncet told Autosport. “I would have understood the frustration for Thierry as well if we would have swapped or whatever. This is a really difficult situation that everyone hates.
“You cannot make everyone happy. We had some chats internally but we decided to hold the positions. We have decided, so that is it.”
Reflecting on the impact the call could have on Tanak’s slim title hopes, Moncet believes his driver would still need to benefit from more mistakes from Rovanpera to stand a chance of snatching the crown. “It is always possible and even if you look at Thierry it is possible,” he added. “The chances are quite small. I don’t think they are zero. We would need Kalle Rovanpera to do other mistakes, but it is not impossible and if there is a chance we will continue.
“But we have made a good step today in the manufacturers’ championship, which is very important for us.”
Moncet didn’t let the team orders discussion detract from the 1-2-3 achievement for his team. “It is an absolutely great result for the whole team and everybody,” he added. “I think it has been a perfect weekend for us.
“We started to wake up and improve in Croatia, Portugal and Sardinia. But then in Kenya again we were nowhere and I think that event was so hard for us, and we destroyed so many things, and we had so many issues, that we have learned a lot.
“So maybe from our misfortune we made our luck here.”