The Rise and Fall of Mitsubishi in WRC
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- Welcome to another new video on this video!
Mitsubishi had a long and rich history in rallying, dating all the way back to 1967 when they entered the Southern Cross Rally. Since then, they have produced some of the most iconic cars ever built, won the WRC Drivers Championship four times with Tommi Mäkinen and even won a manufacturers championship in 1998! But in the 2000's the japanese brand has failed to claim another title and has fallen back to the back of the pack! What happened? Let's dive in and see why they have struggled ever since the 2000's. Enjoy!
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Mitsubishi's success and eventual downfall in the WRC also coincided with the brand's dominance in the Dakar Rally. Between 2001 and 2007 (the last year where the rally actually finished in Dakar) Mitsubishi were undefeated the car class with their Pajero Evolution and Jutta Kleinschmidt, Hiroshi Masuoka, Stephane Peterhansel and Luc Alphand as their winning drivers. And IMO for the Mitsubishi executives in Japan it didn't make sense to make two bespoke cars for WRC and Dakar therefore splitting costs. And since the Group A regulations were working for them really well they decided to continue with the Lancer Evolution Group A cars in WRC and the saved money was redirected to the Pajero Dakar project. That is...until the FIA forced their hand and told them 'Either build a World Rally Car, or bugger off'. And considering the internal upheeval within the WRC program, it was clear that WRC was no longer a priority for Mitsubishi since they kept on winning in Dakar.
Also worth mentioning is the loss of the Philip Morris International sponsorship after the torrid 2002 season, taking the Marlboro brand to Peugeot for the next 3 seasons. I'm mentioning this since the Mitsubishi Marlboro liveries are as iconic as the Lancia Martini and Subaru 555 ones and are instantly recognizable. Sure, the cars were still red upon their return as this is Mitsubishi's corporate color, but it wasn't the same without the Marlboro logos. And considering that Peugeot (thanks to the Marlboro sponsorship) and Citroën were also predominantly red, 3 of the 6 manufacturers were using red as their color in 2004-05
There was an attempt to come back in 07 thanks to Abu Dhabi.. but Mitsubishi corporation said no. You can still find the pics online of the lancer in abu dhabi livery.
That's actually quite interesting to think what would have happened to Ford and M-Sport if Mitsubishi had the Abu Dhabi deal tbh
I wonder if the Evo 7 is when the Lancer Evo became a bit too big and heavy for rallying. If that's the case, Mitsubishi basically reintroduced an old problem that they've already tried to eradicate before by switching from the Galant VR-4 to the Lancer Evo I
100% it was, Makinen said so himself
It was a great video! Very interesting, with the correct narration rhythms and nice clips. You deserve more than 500 subs
Thank you very much :)
@@jm69eng35 Do you know that Rallyssimo (an italian rally magazine) posted an article about your video?
A friend of mine has sent me the article from Rallyssimo. I was a bit shocked when I heard that (kinda like Sesks was in Poland haha).
Great video! I really think that a Lancer WRC06 with a 6 speed semi automatic transmission and other suspension improvements could made this car a winner. Sadly it didn't happened. I remember at the end of 2005 season, before Mitsubishi withdrawal announcement in 12/14/2005 I was following a webpage that was telling that Marcus Gronholm was to be their number one driver with Gigi Galli in the second car. That could be a different interesting outcome.
Evo 6 was a good car but just look at the WRC 02 and later models. Drivers having to overdrive to try to force the car to do what they want it to do. The footage of the WRC 04 needing several inputs going into a corner. Was that chassis simply too long in the wheel base?
Very nice video. Worth of a subsctiption
Thank you very much :)
For 1995, you forgot about Andrea Aghini, very underrated driver, he was #12 in the Evo 2 and 3 for the 95 season, and would do decently and participated in The Monte Carlo, The Tour De Corse, and rally Catalunya and in the ERC.His best performance was in the Tour De Corse and ERC with a 3rd place finish and 5th in Catalunya after Makinen crashed out and 6th finish in Monte. Not mad, just feel like the Italian driver deserves some credit as he did some development work on the Evo 3
amazing video! a great way to end the year :)
Thanks mate! Happy new year :D
Loix time at mitsubishi will remain a big mystery, why the team didn't sack him after 2000.
The strangest thing was when Peugeot signed him for 2004. It still doesn't make any sense for me at all.
I heard some rumors that it was all thanks to Marlboro. They apparently had a very strong bias towards drivers that were loyal to their sponsorship and they had enough influence to "convince" even top level teams that they sponsored to hire certain drivers like Loix. They pushed strings to assist smaller local teams that they sponsored.
Due to Marlboro. His was the reason they got Marlboro backing in 99. Fun fact. Freddy Loix was the very last Wrc driver to have a personal sponsorship from Marlboro.
@@jt-hb8lh Loix in a way is the WRC counterpart of Andrea de Cesaris. De Cesaris remained in F1 for so long partially due to his links with Marlboro (his father was head of Marlboro's Italian branch or something) which allowed him to get a seat in Marlboro-sponsored teams like McLaren and Alfa Romeo
and why his pace dropped like a stone in Mitsubishi. Seems like a dream move turned nightmare. He was one of the most promising rising stars
Awesome video! Would you consider doing other manufacturers, or do you leave them to TyDye?
I am thinking about doing a video about another manufacturer (f.e. Skoda). But at first I will try to tackle shorter videos and I've got some ideas already.
Serious video👏
Thank you very much :D
And gigi galli was the last driver to win a special stage with mitsubishi in spain 2005
Great video. Thanks!
Good video man stay cool until new year👍
Thanks man. You too :D
Loverly video and good info
Part of it probably also has to do with their massive sales downturn in north america around that time, the 80's, 90's and early 00's had been great years for mitsubishi in north america thanks to their partnership with pentastar (chrysler) which had produced a 20 year long string of amazing cars for both brands.
But the relationship soured when chrysler began running out of money and ended up getting swallowed whole by Daimler-Benz in the early 00's.
After that happened mitsubishi lost a huge percentage of their market share over here and essentially became a niche brand in the most competitive market in the world which put them in a financial squeeze for years that only got worse when the '08 crash hit, before they reinvented themselves here in the 2010's and became the "good enough" brand that would sell cars to people with bad credit who needed something but couldn't get a loan elsewhere.
Makkinen would probably win the 2001 title if it wasn't for that awful WRC Lancer
He said that this car is Disaster.
i have question? you can make next video like this, rise and fall of citroen wrc. when?
I might take a look at Citroen''s WRC history at one point. But it's not my number one priority yet.