The team principal of M-Sport Ford, Richard Millener, clarifies that his team will follow a specific approach this season, which is based on its confirmed driver line-up, and excludes the possibility of Sebastien Loeb returning back to the wheel of a Puma.
The Malcolm Wilson's team announced that Gregoire Munster and Adrien Fourmaux will be the representative driver for the blue oval in 2024 after Ott Tanak's decision to rejoin Hyundai Motorsport. Both of them are inexperienced compared to its rivals, thus M-Sport Ford does not have many expectations from them to bring a victory, but believe that a finish at the podium positions is achievable. However, French media stated that Sebastien Loeb may return to World Rally Championship with a Ford Puma Rally1 in Portugal, but M-Sport Ford makes clear that it is impossible considering their low budget. Finally, Fourmaux and Munster showed their potential in Monte Carlo as they set a third-fastest time while the Frenchman finished at the top five. On the other hand, Munster was in sixth place overall at the end of Stage 11, but he had to restart on Sunday under the SuperRally regulations after his crash in Stage 12 on the season opener.
"Don’t get me wrong working with a nine-time world champion is always something we’d be happy to do, but we have no plans for this at all", Millener said.
"We’ve set our stall out for this season and the program is based very much around Adrien and Grégoire.
"We’re taking a very focused approach with what we have this year.
"We know where we are with budgets and what we’ve got to work with and it’s vital that we’re running the team as efficiently as possible.
"The resource we have is being invested into the team, the car and the crews – we saw that this approach could really pay dividends with the Fiesta Rally2 last season and we’re looking for the same result in Rally1 this season.
"I was very impressed with what I saw from both our guys in Monte.
"Adrien absolutely stuck to the plan and delivered consistent pace.
"By and large, it’s the same story for Grégoire.
"To come out of the season-opener as we did was pleasing and something for the team to build on".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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