M-Sport Ford confims that Sebastien Loeb and Gus Greensmith will not take part at Rallye Monte Carlo next month as Jourdan Serderidis has been announced to be there with the third Puma Rally1.
Sebastien Loeb participated in four rallies in 2022 and won the 90th version of Rallye Monte Carlo eleven months ago while this was the first ever victory in the hybrid era of the World Rally Championship. Despite the fact that he competed at Dakar Rally before getting behind the wheel of the Puma last January, it will be more difficult for him to be in Monte Carlo again as the Dakar Rally will be finished just one day before the recce starts.
On the other hand, the Cumbria-based team will probably not renew Gus Greensmith's contract for 2023 as Pierre-Louis Loubet has been confirmed with a full-season programme while Ott Tanak's arrival to the team had a big impact to the budget. However, it must be mentioned that it is rumored that Greensmith will rent the fourth Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 next year as it will be available after the Japanese team decided to promote Takamoto Katsuta to the main squad.
Finally, Jourdan Serderidis will rent the third Puma Rally1 of M-Sport and his campaign will start with the classic Rallye Monte Carlo. He will compete in Mexico and Sardinia and his final rally of the season will be Safari Rally of Kenya.
"I will not be doing Monte Carlo", Loeb said.
"It’s even more complicated than last year because there was one day between the end of the Dakar and the recce.
"This year the Dakar is finishing on Sunday and the recce is on Monday morning so it’s even more tight.
"It would have been an option if there was a real plan in the WRC, but it doesn’t sound like I will do the full season so I will not go to Monte Carlo.
"Even if I stopped the Dakar and called a team and say, ‘OK I am going for the Monte Carlo, find me a car’, so it is more complicated than.
"Obviously, the plan is to finish the Dakar".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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