Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
There could be one common answer to these. But I highly doubt it.
I think he implies they might want Breen out immediately, not for Tanak next year. That could have been the desired intent on Saturday, then after Fourmaux crashed the decision was taken elsewhere so they couldn't sack Breen anyway if they wanted - contract details aside.

Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
I think we agree MSport needs at minimum podiums/around podiums to actually attract paydrivers and show the car is competitive. Else they go to others when possible (Loubet and Veiby at Hyundai), or to Rally2 (Gryazin).
"Just paydrivers" are unable to prove that. What kept them in the game somehow in 2019 was Evans that could sometimes be fast (Corsica, GB (bare the issues)), but at that point he wasn't really a paydriver with no results.
I can't agree - there literally isn't any other choice for customers. Whether the car is 11th by paydriver or Loeb winning isn't swaying anyone's decision to go Rally1 or not. Whether it has mechanical failures might.

Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
For this year MSport had a relatively risky strategy, hoping that Breen will at least stay the same or improve (and charge for championship) and that Fourmaux and Greensmith improve. In a late move they secured themselves with Loeb (still risky given his performance at Hyundai, but free PR anyway).
Loeb proved really good move cause none of the other things worked. Breen is worse than last year, Fourmaux is going backwards (compare with Croatia or Portugal last year), Greensmith is the same (bad).
They hired Breen because he was free (as suggested on here) and they needed somebody, anybody, to just turn up and not consistently crash or embarrass them - the Fourmaux deal came too late in the hour. Can discuss Breen vs A.N Other but at the time, no Breen = no Gus, Rockdoor, Huttunen, Loubet, Serderidis, Bertelli, Red Bull... Loeb came via the promoter like a customer, M-Sport didn't ring him. There's no championship charge expectations anywhere, there's no risky strategy, there's no number one driver...