Quote Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC View Post
M-Sport are in a tough position with being a producer of all classes of rally cars from Rally 5 to WRC and the new Rally 1.

Having good driver's to develop and prove all of them for sales, as well as the WRC team competing at the top level is not easy, or cheap.
Personnally, I think M-Sport is the only responsible for not finding a main WRC-2 driver.
They decide to take Loeb for some drives next year whereas the marketing effect is now reduced and he has not proven to be more than a B-class driver in Hyundai now (I’m talking about the 46-year old Loeb, not the young one) even if this maverick role in M-Sport may be better for him than the manufacturer job in Hyundai.
And Loeb probably don’t pay to drive.
I’m pretty sure than by offering them a 4-round Rally1 program, they would have succeeding in hiring Ostberg or Mikkelsen for a full 7-round WRC-2 program in addition for almost nothing. And they would be at the same level than the old Loeb.

And it will be very difficult for them to hire another good driver of the Rally2 class which is already in Skoda or Citroen as the Fiesta has not proven to be more competitive (for example, don’t see why Bulacia would sign).
The only strategy for them would be to hire a young high-potential driver (Cais) and maybe another one in a bad situation (Huttunen which is not much trusted in Hyundai).