Blog: Has Toyota chosen correctly Meeke for its third driver?

Kris Meeke is undoubtedly the only driver of the WRC who divides public opinion with his performances in the WRC. But noteworthy is the question whether Toyota did correctly to choose him for its line-up for the 2019?

First of all, the Northern Ireland driver has proved many times that he has the speed to push, since he set competitive times on all the surfaces of the races, whether it is gravel or tarmac. He is a driver who can bring victories to his team and therefore points for the manufacturer championship having already 5 wins and 12 podiums in his career. Moreover, Meeke has knowledge regarding the evolution of the car, since he set up and developed the new Citroen C3 WRC and mainly it is the sector on which he has studied. Finally, having been a student of the legend Colin McRae, he has gained from him not only his way of driving, but also his way of thinking.

On the other hand, the main defect of Meeke is the lack of stability. This is confirmed by the many accidents he had during his stay in Citroen, which were due both to the mistakes of himself and to his co-driver Paul Nagle, despite the fact that only the first one was charged. A typical example is the Rally Argentina in 2017 that not only brought the 14 rollovers in the air in the 14th special but he had two exits in just one race (the SS4 was the first stage which it happened his first exit and the SS14 was the stage of the next day that he had the second exit)! The lack of stability and the challenge of frequent accidents were the main causes that he was axed by Citroen in the first half of 2018, since the French team had to allocate a lot of money to fix the C3 WRC from the beginning, and thus forced Pierre Budar to search for his replacement.

Although Tommi Makinen’s decision to give Meeke the opportunity to drive the Yaris WRC next year remains risky, the Japanese team has the strongest and fastest line-up for 2019 and certainly the speed of Meeke will offer more spectacle in the World Rally Championship!