2013 / Who’s hot?
Who’s hot?
Words: Harry van Veenendaal
Images: Bas Romeny
Rather then to take you through the Hot or nots of the last
rallies of the season which would be a repeat of earlier reports in this section, we would like to take you through the
season and award the Hot and Not’s of the whole season.
HOT
After considerable consideration we at Rally-eMag could
only came to one conclusion. The hottest man of the season is Sebastien Ogier. Not because he is the now reigning champion but for the way he did it. Last year he had
to bite his nails for not being able to challenge the likes of
Sebastien Loeb and others. But during that year he built a
car that totally suits him, a car that during the 2013 season
showed it was the best car of them all. Together with the
best driver of them all, this proved to be a lethal combination for the championship aspirations of the competition.
34/64
The runner-up position without any doubt goes to Thierry
Neuville. He grew from the nice fast Belgian to the hottest
item on the wish list of all team bosses. He did this by total
dedication. Nasser Al Attiyah told us that for Neuville rallying is his total live. There is nothing else he thinks about
and if anything goes wrong he doesn’t stop analysing.
Elsewhere in this issue you’ll find Anna Louise Rudd telling
you the same. As M-Sport’s PR representative she sees
him quite often so she knows what she is talking about.
Hyundai’s Nandan can be happy he acquired this talent to
his stable.
Although his achievements are a bit mixed. We pick Robert Kubica for our third HOT item. Winning WRC2 is one
reason, but here dedication also plays an important role.
After his horrific accident in a rally car the Polish F1 star
came back and though his first love seems to be with F1
he seems to have settled for second best and next year
we will see him with M-Sport.