M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[AnttiL]

Suninen is a pay driver though. It's the only reason he's been at Msport the last few years .

Richard Millener said in an interview that "Evans and Suninen are the only drivers we support financially", regarding the WRC2Pro team being actually pay drivers.

[AnttiL]

Will be interesting to see how much of Elfyn's rumoured £2.4m salary is absorbed back into the team...

and Tänak's...

[dimviii]

Richard Millener said in an interview that "Evans and Suninen are the only drivers we support financially", regarding the WRC2Pro team being actually pay drivers.

support isnt necessary meaning that they pay them with some million/s

[BobJones]

Richard Millener said in an interview that "Evans and Suninen are the only drivers we support financially", regarding the WRC2Pro team being actually pay drivers.

True. It's a ~half-pay gig for Teemu. Needs some funds via sponsorship, but not the full amount as M-Sport subsidise. I believe that's the deal offered to Lappi too, provided he can find the necessary backing to plug the gap.

[er88]

Yep. Suninen isn't a pay driver in the sense of Greensmith (paying full costs of a drive), but he brings substantial budget/backing/support to help Msport run him.

That's why I'm a bit pissed with what Msport are seemingly doing. So many good drivers available, who would drive for free or a minimal yearly salary (in WRC terms), yet they are seemingly wanting Lappi to bring some budget - on top of Teemu and Guss who are already helping with funding. No ambition to put out the best possible 3 car team (which could've been done with Mikkelsen, Meeke, Paddon, Lappi, Latvala, Breen etc etc for relatively nothing).

They were prepared to try and get Tanak but since that didnt work out, they're happy to use this situation to see what drivers are the most desperate for a seat and can source backing. I hope for one, they can at least give Paddon a drive in an event or two.

I understand they dont have full Ford backing, but this was a great chance for Msport to sign two new drivers on the cheap and create a really strong team despite that.

[deephouse]

Paddon said that he will be loyal to Hyundai NZ and probably not try to ''get back''in Fiesta after two failed attempts with it. He is aiming to be back maybe in a few years, but I think that he doesn't have that much hope anymore. If he would do good in TCR NZ with i30 I think that Hyundai could bring him to WTCR maybe.

[Allez Andruet]

It seems to be lost in the discussion that M-Sport is a private company, not a marketing arm of a giant car manufacturer. They're in it to make profit and in that sense it should be praised that they're 1) still in and 2) seemingly running two credible drivers again in 2020.

[deephouse]

They are/were better than Citroen with factory backed funding for last three years. Proper commited with no whatsoever money and still kick their asses.

[mknight]

They are/were better than Citroen with factory backed funding for last three years. Proper commited with no whatsoever money and still kick their asses.

In 2019 MSport ended behind Citroen in manu Standings despite running 3 nominated cars on multiple events while Citroen always ran 2. In previous years Msport did beat Citroen but Citroen also didn't run 3 cars on multiple events in 2018.

Anyway while I agree that it is nice that MSport is in and understand that they are there to run a business the succes of their business depends on them showing similar speed to the other cars. This in turn makes (partly/fully) paying drivers join them and also makes them attractive to other coming drivers.
So imo they do depend on having at least one somewhat proven driver to provide reference to other drivers and help with car setup/development. Suninen is not yet there (as he said himself in Finland). Lappi might help with that, but he isn't really much different than Suninen in terms of WRC experience.

[deephouse]

Comparing Lappi and Suninen is total nonsense. Lappi shows tremendous step up right away while Suninen seems to struggle more and more. Right now maybe Lappi did a mistake to come to Citroen, but he is more capable of challenging for title than Suninen will ever be. Just wait.