Quote Originally Posted by doubled1978 View Post
New Skoda certainly looks very good, not just one driver setting fast times.
The Ford must be very disheartening, it doesn’t even look bad, it’s just slow….
I agree on Lopez, good effort.
I thought that giving Fourmaux the chance to show that the Fiesta is good was a good decision for both parties: Adrien could gain confidence and M-Sport have a capable driver to promote the Fiesta. No, he won't be as quick as the likes of Gryazin, Lindholm and Suninen, but a battle with the rest seemed plausible. Well, even when Fourmaux pushed like hell he was significantly slower than the best Rally2 guys, there's no battle with Lopez, Rossel or Lefebvre.

That just means one thing: M-Sport's core business is in a bad state (that's one of the reason why I think we see RB throwing more money at M-Sport. The company is having troubles and without RB's support their Rally1 program would collapse or be on the cusp of it). Why would anyone want to buy a Fiesta when there's Hyundai and Škoda? I've heard plenty of people complaining about M-Sport's customer service as well: the cars are not getting the promised upgrades at scheduled times, it's been hard to get your hands on spare parts etc.

Yes, I know, Malcolm and Millener talk at the start of every season how it's so hard to find the budget for Rally1. But I don't remember the business side of M-Sport to be as bad as it is in the previous years. Perhaps someone can prove me wrong, I sincerely hope that!