I think Ford are up on this arrangement, all the risk lies with M-Sport. If they cared about results they'd fully back a Ford team.
I've no doubt the feeling would be mutual.
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Lappi was never an option (he was fixated on a Toyota return), and the door ain't closed yet on Mikkelsen. How is a line up of Breen, Fourmaux, Greensmith as full season drivers with Mikkelsen/Loeb sharing the fourth Puma that bad is beyond me...
Tinted glasses seem to be in fashion when it comes to M-Sport.
What about August's round 9?: https://www.ewrc-results.com/final/7...z-rallye-2022/
Ypres has set a June date http://www.rallye-infos.site/le-rall...-mais-la-lerc/
UK will be Republic of Ireland before a world class rally gets organised there.
Doesn't make Germany replacing NZ, but that and Japan are for good intentions anyway.
https://www.wrc.com/en/news/2021/wrc...-disintegrate/
Sorry, Mikkelsen likely won't be there.
Have you already forgotten that M-Sport won the manufacturer title in 2017? And three drivers won rallies with their car that year? And Ogier took two world titles with that car? Next year we'll have new cars and the situation will likely be very equal again, so we could well have three equal teams fighting for the win in every rally. If they had left after 2020, perhaps they wouldn't be coming back now.
I'm totally fine with M-Sport having some gentleman drivers funding the team's survival. And once again, these gentleman drivers don't steal anyone's drives. Right now it seems M-Sport cannot invest in a young driver like they did with Evans and Tänak earlier. And even with them, it wasn't complete investment like Toyota does with Katsuta, I believe both had personal financial backing and for example Elfyn worked in the family business for quite long into his WRC career. These things are never simple or black and white, and we never get to hear the exact details.
And that article where they talk about "development" of the Australian driver like there was actually some results to be achieved...it's just PR talk and some sites allow you to buy that kind of articles where you can "advertise" a driver or team. It's also just business and it makes it possible for us to have awesome rally news for free.
WRC2 is obviously a different story. It seems M-Sport has abandoned the Fiesta Rally2 for now and I don't know how much they are selling them. Maybe now with Brexit, British drivers are more likely to use M-Sport and vice versa?