The team principal of M-Sport Ford, Richard Millener, says that the team is still negotiating with some drivers for next season and believes that they will confirm their line-up by December 16.
So far, Hyundai and Toyota announced their drivers for 2023 a week ago, but the Cumbrian-based team is yet to confirm its drivers. According to Millener, Gus Greensmith and Pierre-Louis Loubet have many possibilities to continue with the team after the successful season they had in 2022 while their plan for 2023 includes Ott Tanak and Sebastien Loeb to drive the Ford Puma Rally1.
The Estonian driver decided to terminate his contract with Hyundai prematurely and is available on the drivers' market , but it is rumored that he will drive a Ford Rally1 car which will belong to Petter Solberg's team and will have Monster Energy as its main sponsor. On the other hand, Loeb is willing to continue with M-Sport Ford for one more year if he secures a partial programme with them. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that the nine-time World Rally Champion was the first driver who won in hybrid era of WRC and showed the real potential of Puma in the rally stages.
"We’ve got time", Millener said.
"Entries for Monte close on December 16 – that gives us a month to sort things out.
"I’m confident we’ll have news before then.
"It sounds like a cliché, but genuinely we are talking to everybody about next year.
"There are still a lot of possibilities.
"Naturally, we’re talking with Gus and Pierre-Louis – both those guys had a successful 2022 season with us and we’re interested to continue working with them.
"Like I said, we’re talking to everybody.
"That includes Ott and Séb.
"We’re confident we have a competitive car in the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid and we know what we’ve got coming for next season.
"Working with S̩b was one of the highlights of 2022 Рlike you can imagine, winning Monte Carlo was an exceptional way to start the new hybrid generation.
"Let’s see what the next four weeks brings".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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