WRC’s ‘silly season’ still has some critical points, especially around the M-Sport team. The Cumbria lineup, now that it has secured Ford Performance’s support for three seasons, needs a high-level lineup And the options are limited. All in all, the first ingredient in your recipe is about to be confirmed as Craig Breen is very close to signing his tie with M-Sport. The Irishman will leave Hyundai Motorsport in search of a project that he can lead and in which will have a full program with one of the Ford Puma Rally1 of the structure of Malcolm Wilson.
After two seasons linked to Hyundai, in which he had a partial program at the wheel of the third Hyundai i20 WRC Coupé that he shared with Dani Sordo, the Irishman is ready to step up and be the spiritual leader of M-Sport’s ‘Rally1’ project in the world Cup. A team that if all goes according to plan will have a line-up of drivers made up of Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith, with the latter providing the necessary budget to have three Ford Puma Rally1 throughout the season. The eventual presence of Sébastien Loeb with a partial program it could be linked to Greensmith’s own project.
Beyond the fit of all the pilots in the M-Sport project, the arrival of Craig Breen to training also clears Hyundai’s bet of variables. Leaving aside Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak, already renewed to drive the first two ‘Rally1’ of the brand, Breen’s departure leaves Dani Sordo with a new travel ‘companion’. And it is that the Cantabrian will renew with Hyundai to share the third Hyundai i20 N Rally1 with Oliver Solberg. Meanwhile, Jari Huttunen will be at the forefront of the brand’s project in WRC2 as a companion to a driver yet to be defined.