Quote Originally Posted by Allez Andruet View Post
Not gonna bother to comment on the first point as it's quite obvious, but while Mikkelsen's been out from the top class for three years, Breen had three podiums from his last three WRC starts (all within the past six months at the time) when getting the deal. As the question was about offering a "similar deal" to Mikkelsen as was to Breen a year ago, I think that sums it up (sure Breen wasn't the complete package either and that was known, but his recent CV was quite far apart from Mikkelsen's). Fourmaux and Greensmith aren't exactly in the same competition.
There is not much point to argue about details, but in general a year ago Breen was considered a rising prospect with possibly bigger potential. This year (as Adamo recently commented) he has shown he can't (yet??) be n1 cause he does not handle the pressure. Mikkelsen was "safer" choice with less potential.

But a year ago is a year ago.

Right now MSport does not have any driver that can be hoped to consistently show the speed of the car and be able to fight for podiums on all or most rounds. Breen got kicked cause he was not able to do that. Loubet can't do that (yet?), no podium yet and on quite a few rallies he doesn't have experience or speed (yet). Fourmaux and Greensmith have shown they can't do that and Loeb won't do many starts.

Mikkelsen is clearly the best available choice (besides Tanak). Question is if MSports aims have been downscaled even more from last year.