The team principal of M-Sport Ford, Richard Millener, believes that Craig Breen must be more single minded in the future and tries to understand what happened in Stage 4 of Rally Japan where his driver crashed.
The Irishman finished outside the top ten at Rally Japan as he restarted under the regulations of Rally2 on Saturday morning after going off the road in Stage 4. This crash was not the only one for Breen as totally he has made mistakes in seven rallies this year which led him to crash and to retire for one day.
However, it must be mentioned that he had a new co-driver alongside him in Japan as Paul Nagle retired from WRC at the end of Rally Spain, so James Fulton was navigating him at the season finale.
"I had a good chat with Craig and I’m not going to get drawn into blame as to where it might have come from or why it happened, but ultimately you’re going to have to find out and understand", Millener said.
"And it’s only Craig that can understand why it happened.
"There’s no technical issue from our side.
"The setup was absolutely fine.
"So we’ve got to understand why that corner in particular has caught him out.
"Personally I have my thoughts and that corner was very dirty compared to the others previous to it.
"The instant I saw the in-car that would be my view that he came in too fast.
"But again, I go with caution.
"I’m not a driver, I’m not driving and it can be very easy to in hindsight say that’s what the problem is, but I think that’s certainly a contributing factor.
"Ultimately the team can stand by him and help him with everything, but you can get support in any area you need if you do think you need it, but you can only change yourself.
"He’s got to find a way inside himself somehow to do it.
"For me, you have to take in the advice and feedback from people around you that you trust, but you have to choose from that which one you think is right and stick with it.
"If you’re continually changing your mind or approach or concept it will never work.
"I think Craig will be the first to tell you that being completely headstrong maybe like a Thierry or an Ott is not how he operates.
"He’s a people person and that’s fantastic as well.
"There’s benefits in that trait.
"But a lot of world champions are single minded.
"That’s more polite than I’d put it.
"I was going to say arseholes, but that works.
"For me when I look at general sport, I watch a lot of sport and you look at the really successful players, you can still be incredibly polite and politically correct and have a bit of a sense of humor and a serious side as well off event, away from the sporting element, but as soon as the whistle goes, or the flag drops or whatever, they are 100% committed to what they are doing and why they are doing it and their beliefs in it.
"And that’s the only way to be.
"And I think in most sports or a team sport like this, it’s so easy to take in all the thoughts of everybody around you and then get completely jumbled.
"So I think he has to, over the winter, re-focus, really hash out all the nonsense around him and decide really what he wants to do".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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