Cyril Abiteboul has never shied away from deploying team orders since taking the helm of Hyundai’s World Rally Championship team.
That gave Andreas Mikkelsen, who sits second on Rally Poland after Saturday’s action, cause for concern. Kalle Rovanperä is only 9.4s up the road and is somewhat vulnerable, given his rushed approach to preparation as a last-minute stand-in for Sébastien Ogier following the eight-time world champion’s recce crash.
Mikkelsen has a chance to win. But he wasn’t sure he’d be allowed to chase after the top spot.
“I have to discuss with the team what they want from me tomorrow,” the Norwegian told DirtFish. “I mean, I would love to try to chase down Kalle tomorrow. It’s some really nice Sunday stages, but I don’t know, it depends on the strategy from the team because if I do that with Ott [Tänak]’s start position… he starts very early and Thierry [Neuville] too, so then maybe I would take points from them.”
Come the final day of Rally Poland, it will have been seven years, seven months and 11 days since Mikkelsen last won a WRC event, at Rally Australia in 2016. He wants to end that long wait. He has the 15 points provisionally banked after Saturday to protect – he can’t risk throwing that away with a Sunday retirement.
Mikkelsen has been on superb form on his first gravel outing of the 2024 season
“I know, but with these new points regulations, it really destroys fighting for the rally win,” he added. “it’s a bit of a shame it’s like that.”
But there is some good news for Mikkelsen. Abiteboul is going to give him that chance – at least on the first loop of the rally. Then it’s back to the chess board for a review of where the three pieces should be moved to try and checkmate Toyota.
If Neuville is the king, born into the family, and Tänak the queen, married into the family, then Mikkelsen is the rook. He’s there to facilitate victory, not necessarily to achieve it on his own.
“The target was never [for Mikkelsen] to fight for the win on that rally,” said Abiteboul. “And I think that sometimes you need to remind yourself what the target was. Obviously, when you progress, you start to review your targets and start to invent new targets.
“I think, again, the target was to secure some good points for the manufacturers’ championship, in particular after what happened to Ott and the struggle of the team progress in the classification. I think we should stay focused on that target.
“But having said that, applying some pressure on Kalle is nice.”
Abiteboul knows it’s too early in the game to be making bold, decisive moves. He needs to see how the first runs of Gmina Mrągowo and Mikołajki play out before understanding whether the rook needs to fall in line or push into enemy territory.
“Frankly, for the first loop, there is absolutely no team order,” confirmed Abiteboul. “We want to see how things are going to stand because it’s still not totally clear what Thierry and Ott, in their respective pretty bad road positions, will be able to do tomorrow.
“Yes, we can artificially slow down Andreas, but does that guarantee the fact that Thierry will be fast enough in order to take some points? I don’t know. If there is something sensible to do at the end of the first loop or later on into the day, we will do it. I think I’ve shown that I’m capable of making that decision.
“If there are interests of the drivers that are fighting for the championship, which are Thierry and Ott, [we will decide] provided that they are not detrimental to the team. In other words, we will never lose manufacturer points just to benefit one particular driver.”
