How come there are no Irish drivers in the WRC?

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Ireland seems to have one of the biggest rally followings in Europe (per head?) and i've always wondered - How come Ireland has not drivers at the highest level WRC? Also for that matter F1?

Lack of opportunities? Just rubbish? Anyone any idea's?!

Edit: Just remembered Eddie Irvine for Ferrari, but he's the only one i can think of.

corcaigh07

I reckon that could change soo enough. Kris Meeke and Keith Cronin won their championships last week, both have the talent to go very far in the sport. If Mattew Wilson has a works drive, there's hope for anyone!

Bobby04

corcaigh07 wrote: »

I reckon that could change soo enough. Kris Meeke and Keith Cronin won their championships last week, both have the talent to go very far in the sport. If Mattew Wilson has a works drive, there's hope for anyone!

In fairness it's fairly obvious why Matthew Wilson has a works drive, and I don't mean his talent! But yeah, you'd like to think that if he can be out there on the WRC scene full time, surely the likes of Meeke will get a shout. But don't forget there's highly talented drivers like Duval, Martin, Atkinson and of course Petter Solberg all without factory drives at the moment!

hi_sir

what abou graig breen one of the front runners in the festia international trophy that runs within the wrc he was running in the top 25 in spain on friday till he hit probs he was about 6 or 7th two wheel drive in a R2 festia

do you not rember last year shaun gallagher on of the front runners in the JWRC

andr3w103

not enough team seats....hopefully there will be more opportunities in 2011 when 1600cc engine cap comes in.....this will bring suzuki,pegeot,fiat into the main wrc..........i think its all down to luck, E. novikov is in the citroen junior team and he crashes every time he gets into the c4....and chris atkinson, a ar better driver, is left stranded because subaru pulled out

andr3w103

Bobby04 wrote: »

In fairness it's fairly obvious why Matthew Wilson has a works drive, and I don't mean his talent!!

daddy is team manager? lmao

hi_sir

andr3w103 wrote: »

not enough team seats....hopefully there will be more opportunities in 2011 when 1600cc engine cap comes in.....this will bring suzuki,pegeot,fiat into the main wrc..........i think its all down to luck, E. novikov is in the citroen junior team and he crashes every time he gets into the c4....and chris atkinson, a ar better driver, is left stranded because subaru pulled out

Novikov is there cause he has big backing the family company is big money and now he has recived backing from citroen russia yet he wreckes every time he gets into the car

the big prob with irish drivers is that they have no hope of getting corprate backing from irish companys where the finns the spanish etc dont have that problem its not a case of bad drivers its all down to money,for a season in a world car it would take around two million

take kris meeke he finally got his chance this year but he was a while in the wilderness but he got the break with pugeot Uk i know a few years ago he was in the running for that seat that dani sordo has but he had to part fund it with over a million pound he just wasnt able to raise the cash and i reckon he would be a better driver than sordo but thats the way things are but thats life

andr3w103

hi_sir wrote: »

Novikov is there cause he has big backing the family company is big money and now he has recived backing from citroen russia yet he wreckes every time he gets into the car

i know yeah, just like khalid al quassimi, from abu dhabi....oh thats a surprise the name of where he is from is on the bonnet of the car and he cant drive lol

hi_sir

he might not be the quickest in the world but its his money that makes up the majority of fords wrc budget so with him you might not have a ford wrc team so can you blame malcom wilson for giving him a car you do what you can to keep the sponsors happy

Top Dog

To be fair to Matthew Wilson, he may not set the world alight but he is a reasonable, and consistent driver.

As for Al Quassimi - small price to pay to ensure that Ford don't pull the plug like Peugeot & Subaru

nikimere

There simply isn't enough money (sponsorship) in Ireland to get our racers and rally drivers to the top of their game.

hi_sir

but its amazing what they are doing on small resourses

De Hipster

If you can afford to rally, have good contacts & can bring BIG money to a team then go for it...talent is an added bonus.

Shadow Dancer

Plus Ireland is a very small market for the car manufacturers. At the end of the day, the bean counters are just interested in the amount of cars they sell. For sure, there'll be people in the teams who are truly passionate about the sport.

Take someone like Dani Sordo, think of all the young Spaniards who might consider buying a Citroen because of him. And I'm in no way being negative about him. Nobody can deny he's a very talented driver. It is just so hard for Irish drivers to get a break.

hi_sir

You 100% right were such a small market it was some coupe to get rally ireland

afatbollix

the only reason rally ireland came back was because of the TV coverage.. it was the most watched WRC the first round so thats why it is now a round every two years

I do wish meeke drove for a different company tho.. as i dont want to have to buy a pug...

bmw316

irish drivers just aint upto that standered thats all:eek:

itarumaa

If you think why the finns are driving in WRC the reasons are

1. Good sponsors in Finland, Timo Jouhki and Harry Harkimo. Timo has sponsored/managered Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Mäkinen, Toni Gardemaister, Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala. Harry has sponsored Marcus Grönholm. Those drivers alone have collected 10 WRC championships:)

2. Good driving opportunities. All the wrc drivers from Finland are more or less from countryside. In the winter they can froze the fields or drive in frozen lakes and therefore practice from young age.

3. Sisu, a bit hard to translate, but basically it means that giving up is not an option. If finnish future champion goes to drive in Jyväskylä Rally Finland and achieves 10th place, then it is a failure, not an achievement. If I remember correctly there were drivers in Rally Ireland saying that they are happy that they are in top10 and other drivers have more experience etc. Bull**** that is, if you cannot challenge the best then you are not championship material either.

So I think many Irish drivers might have issues with these, however I think that Kris Meeke could have a really good future with the sport, he definitely has the talent.