M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[mknight]

Breen would choose a full season at Msport over a half season at Hyundai.

He's already said multiple he wants a full season now, you can't build up and improve to become a potential title contender doing half arsed seasons on the same(ish) events.

The choice (if there is any) is not between full season at MSport and 2-3 events at Hyundai.... it might have been 3 months ago, but not after Ypres.

If there is any choice it might be full season at MSport vs say 8 out of 14? events at Hyundai (or even full season at Hyundai).
In that case I doubt it's a clear choice, for him either.

(Breen has been saying he wants full season for 1,5 years now. Yes but how much of that is "pressure" for more starts at Hyundai?)


You can't build up and improve at all if the car is lacking and team has no money for even basic testing.
See Suninen this year, Sardinia as the worst example.
No testing, hasn't driven the car on gravel for like 8 months, never used the Pirelli gravel tires. Crashes in first stage and gets "we don't care, it's your problem" from MSport leadership.
...or goes to Estonia gets technical issues after few stages and spends rest of the weekend roadcleaning.

Result is he is not improving anything and his "standing" is dropping like a stone. (and he is also burning own funding)

Sure MSport is likely to be more on the pace next year, but there is little guarantee. But drivers often have very high meaning of themselves on how others "problems" won't happen to them cause they are better. Doesn't seem to work that well though (see Tanak to Hyundai, Loeb at Hyundai before that).

[Fast Eddie WRC]

The big problem for all who are looking for a WRC seat in 2022 is the new Rally1 cars. Teams wont let them test their car until they've signed for fear of them taking info about it elsewhere.

Picking any of the new cars will be a gamble, but M-Sport have a better reputation than Hyundai in this respect.

[mknight]

Long-term reputation yes, short term I am not so sure.

2006 Focus was clearly fastest
2011 Fiesta seemed also faster than competition

2017 i20 WRC seemed like clearly the fastest car during first half of the season. Fiesta was comparable to others but not not clearly better.
But even this is 4 years ago, and lately MSport had big staff reductions including Loriaux (to Hyundai).

The "new" Fiesta Rally2 (2019) isn't much of a success.

Yes it seems Hyundai didn't let Breen drive the new car yet. But the fact that Neuville and especially Tanak re-signed should be telling that it's not bad so far.
How Puma will be is much harder to guess for Breen.

[AnttiL]

But even this is 4 years ago, and lately MSport had big staff reductions including Loriaux (to Hyundai).

Loriaux was at M-Sport, but has not been working at the rally program for years

[mknight]

Loriaux was at M-Sport, but has not been working at the rally program for years

He was this year:
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/loria...-hyundai-move/

“In 2020, I carried on developing some ideas for Bentley and worked quite a lot with Chris Williams on the Ford 2022 Rally car.

So basically he knows the Puma (until May) and then went to Hyundai with all that knowledge.

Not likely MSport will have much of an advantage over Hyundai then.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

In 2017 the M-Sport Fiesta WRC won the Driver's & Manu titles and all 3 of their driver's (Ogier, Tanak & Evans) won events in it. The new car won the most rallies that year.

Hyundai with their i20 WRC were well behind in 2nd place in the Manus points and only Neuville was able to win in it.

[mknight]

Neuville lost 2 clear wins with own crashes (Monte, Sweden), and two more likely podiums (Germany, Spain).
Still he had more stagenwins than Ogier and Tanak together.

In either case I wrote first half of the season, there was no competition there. Ogier took 5-ish rallies to develop the car to his (and Tanaks) liking.

No Ogier at MSport to develop it next year.

[EstWRC]

lol Ogier developed it to Tänaks liking....


its such a shame M-sport didnt get any of the big names...i really wished Ott would sign or Thierry, was actually a little surprised that both stayed

[rp]

its such a shame M-sport didnt get any of the big names...i really wished Ott would sign or Thierry, was actually a little surprised that both stayed

I was sure that Ott would be there, because his time with Hyundai has been very bad, but surely money was talking more...

[Fast Eddie WRC]

In either case I wrote first half of the season, there was no competition there. Ogier took 5-ish rallies to develop the car to his (and Tanaks) liking.
.

Neuville was at Hyundai already and the 2017 car was designed around him. (Some would say it still is and several other drivers have struggled with it over the years.)

Ogier had to adapt to the Fiesta from years at VW and developing their 2017 car. He got it to his liking but it was still an adaptable enough car for others to win rallies in it.