About the Mikkelsen/Loeb debate, I think a lot of M-Sport’s thoughts is about «*do one of them worth to spend money if they don’t bring a full budget?*»:

- about Loeb, the question is yes without a doubt on a pure performance point of view, considering what he showed in 2022; but his calendar is always an issue with his other contracts (and for sure, M-Sport wants also to grab the most possible from Red Bull).
Also, I’m clearly skeptical about Loeb in a manufacturer strategy and I think it was one of Loeb’s issues in Hyundai: IMO, he is still able to be fast sometimes but not as efficient as before (see his rookie mistake in Portugal), which is normal considering his age, and is not really adapted anymore to be a manufacturer driver; I think he is a good freelance driver (with some freedom) but doesn’t have anymore the manufacturer spirit and some of his behaviors in 2022 let me think this like in Safari and Greece (to sum up, he plays for win or nothing).
So I’m not sure at all he can bring some help to Tanak as a side driver, all the more if he does only very few stints.

- about Mikkelsen, the question is much more difficult to answer and I understand M-Sport decisions to say «*no money - no driver*» this year. Don’t forget his last RC1 rallye was in 2019 and he never drove in Rally1. In addition to that, I wouldn’t overrate too much his 2019 performance because as I said before (comparing to Evans’ 2019 season for example), a part of it is clearly explained by road position with an excellent strategy by Adamo (let’s recognize it here) about which rallies to miss. If we take a close look on his best performances (top5) in 2019:
Sweden (4th), he was in the last ones to start even if it’s not the place it counts most
Argentina (2nd): last RC1 one to start and was only good in the afternoon of the second leg
Sardinia (3rd): probably 7th or 8th in the road and only good on the last day
Finland (4th): 7th on the road and nothing special except the last day
Turkey (3rd): 5th on the road (with Evans out)
When you take this into account, it’s rather good but nothing sensational and it was more than 3 years ago now; it’s clearly a risky move to put a money on a driver like this when you haven’t big money for a manufacturer because I’m not sure at all he can bring any help to Tanak (when you see that for example, Sordo was a bit rusty in terms of speed).


About Greensmith, IMO, he was not paying the full cost for his season as he did some marketing for the team + was in the manufacturer team; probably he paid the direct costs but not the indirect (whereas Serderidis or Bertelli are paying all) or something like that, considering especially some of Millener’s interviews. So probably for the team between running a car with him or not running a car at all, the difference is not that big and as they want to focus a lot on Tanak, it may explain some of the disagreements between Greensmith and the team for 2023 (money + test days, quality of the car, ...).
I don’t think M-Sport is giving up clients (see Serderidis and probably Bertelli) for Rally1 but they want to focus on clients paying fully for the service given. Not impossible we see Greensmith back in 2024 if Tanak leaves and they come back to the former strategy.