Rally-eMag 014 December 2013 | Page 35

2013 / Who’s not? Who’s not? NOT It’s a pity but here the choice has been quite clear also. The number one spot is for Evgeny Novikov. He is very fast and he can be leading rallies, but he still seems to be incapable of listening to his co-driver and flies off the road too often. It’s a shame because he has an enormous fanbase in an important market of Russia but he does not seem to be able to convince us he is the real talent we saw in him earlier. 35/64 In possibly his worst season ever Mikko Hirvonen is rewarded with the runner-up position in the NOT category. Being one of the nicest guys around in the WRC scene is clearly not enough to really convince us. His fourth place doesn’t seem to be that bad, but he had too many bad days during this year’s seasons. And if you proclaim this to be YOUR season at the beginning it’s not good enough. We hope coming back to M-Sport will change his winning moods again. Our third price in this category goes to time keeper SIT. In Wales they failed to be able to declare the winner for a long time. OK they were unlucky because hackers, making it impossible for them to trust their own results, have attacked them. But nowadays it unfortunately is imperative to protect your connections and to have by passes if you do get attacked. But apart from the Wales drama FIA already in the summer launched an investigation. This was because they frequently failed to provide the data they have been hired to provide. It’s true they had very little time to prepare themselves, but getting a job like this they should have known what was coming. Perhaps in this field they have to share their price with the FIA who at a very late date decided to replace the long time and therefore very experienced supplier Stage One Technology. Let’s hope SIT gets their act together next year.