Most underrated rallydriver?
 

Who is the most underrated past or current rallydriver?

One who immediately springs to my mind is Dani Sordo. Yes, he's not as good as Loeb but his pace is much, much better than people give him credit for - even on gravel. I get the impression people place him quite a bit below the current 'top 5' drivers in the WRC, but it's my view that if he was given the role of lead driver in a top team (which may happen sooner rather than later with MINI) then he'd compete (not necessarily win, but compete) for titles. Tarmac pace is probably the best in the world, and on gravel I'd put him equal to Mikko and Petter. Unrivalled consistency too.

Good question, although maybe it should be "who deserves a drive" ?
PG comes to mind!

Delecour & Villagra come to mind. Delecour could have been champion in 1994 if he hadn't had an injury and I really enjoyed watching him on Monte Carlo in the Sierra! Villagra has always been very consistent. I think if the Munchi's team invested more on the car he would have been a better customer driver.

Delecour & Villagra come to mind. Delecour could have been champion in 1994 if he hadn't had an injury and I really enjoyed watching him on Monte Carlo in the Sierra! Villagra has always been very consistent. I think if the Munchi's team invested more on the car he would have been a better customer driver.

In recent years I'd say Atkinson... his performance with Subaru were very good, but unfortunately he didn't manage to find a seat when Subaru pulled out.

Jean Ragnotti. Very big driver imho,but his marriage with Renault didn t let him to show us more of his talent.

Atko is another, definetly deserves a seat in WRC!

I still don't understand Villagra's performance on the WRC. In Argentina and South America, he dominates, but I think that in the WRC he has a more safe approach.

Last week an Argentine website published that Rally Spain will be the Munchi's last rally, they won't be on WRC next year.

Rallynoticias.com

atkinson also comes to my mind first, as i said in another thread before: he was faster then solberg in the last subaru years.

I was also thinking about Sarrazin and Bryce Tirabassi. They drove for the Subaru squad towards the end of its tenure in the WRC. I think that Sarrazin is a bit wasted in IRC and Tirabassi did well to win the JWRC in 2003. I am unsure to this day why neither got full time drives. I think that Urmo Aava could also be added to this category of "could have been" WRC drivers.

The question est tout le jours "By who underated?"
If one has eyes one cannot underrate Ragnotti.
He is a genius, a pleasure to watch..


As for other hugely under-rated drivers I'd say ME! of course!

Alas my marriage to Saab V4....you know the rest!

Maybe, but Petter spent some of his own money, and put together a program.
Atkinson seems to have simply shrugged and be content with playing with his mate Blockie.

Sarrazin is full-time Peugeot driver in Le Mans series. In IRC he usually drives only RMC and once he drove Ypres with early crash. I must admit he's quite an expert on RMC and I quite expect his guest SWRC entry for 2012 event.

Tirrabassi drove almost complete IRC in 2007 or 2008 but if I remember well he only achieved many retirements from all possible reasons. Later there were only few starts with Impreza S14 in some French events including last WRC Tour de Corse. Last time I remember him from Rallye du Var 2010 with same car...

Yep Tirabassi with the S14 from Ipatec serviced by Wevers Sport. Tirabassi is since his nice JWRC outing quite a failure :-/

A man driving a Impreza S14 outpaced by Robert Kubica in a Clio S1600 doesn't deserve a full time drive http://www.motorsportforums.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

yes but Solberg was lucky enough and was getting some very fat checks from subaru for many years so he spent a small fraction of them to put that program together...Atko was not that lucky.

As for the main question i would say

Auriol
Loix

You have to wonder why Atko didn't spend some of his own money to fund a WRC drive. I don't think it fair to say he was underpaid by Subaru.

OMG I had no idea it went so far down hill. I only managed to see him on a few events in the WRC/JWRC.