Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
It's never the same risk:

- Team budget (Toyota>Hyundai>MSport ?)
- Engineering skills (?)/ Recent car record (Toyota>Hyundai>MSport)
- Driver testing and feedback skills (Evans, Rovanpera, Hanninen, Ogier vs Tanak, Neuville, Sordo, Solberg vs Breen, Fourmaux, Greensmith, Matt Wilson)
- Timeline (seemingly MSport>Toyota>Hyundai)
The biggest variable in this, is a team's ability to adapt to a major regulation change. It doesn't matter how much money you've got, or how much you've won before, or how clever your people are, if they're working in the wrong direction. C3 WRC, anyone?

In this regard, M-Sport were able to steal a march on everyone in 2017, despite enduring a 2016 season very nearly as bad (Ott Tanak's pace in the Dmack car aside) as it has been for them in 2021. That said, their lead development driver for the '17 car was Tanak - it seems unlikely that they have had a driver of equivalent pedigree involved in the Puma, unless it's the best-kept secret in motorsport history...

It can only be this possibility that Craig Breen is banking on.