Camilli wants to repay Wilson with strong finish on Rally Argentina

M-sport World Rally team driver Eric Camilli says he wants to “repay the faith” shown in him by team principal Malcolm Wilson at this weekend’s Rally Argentina after a string of retirements.

Camilli has suffered a poor start to his career as a works driver, posting just one finish – 16th in Mexico – and crashing on all three rallies he’s started.

The 28-year-old flew into Britain for a meeting with Wilson last week to talk about his tough start to the year and how he intends to put it right in South America.

“The start to the season has been very tough, really tough,” explained Camilli. “I want to repay the faith the team has shown in me this week.”

Wilson told MN last month that he expected Camilli to finish strongly after a poor run.

Camilli and team-mate Mads Ostberg will have an easier job in Argentina after the discovery of a problem with their factory cars last time out in Mexico.

Wilson explained: “Looking on the data when the cars were back here, we discovered there was a problem. We made a mistake on the mapping and we’ll have that right in Argentina.

“There’s no doubt the drivers will notice a difference in the response and torque from the engine this time.”

Despite those issues in Leon, M-sport still celebrated its 200th consecutive point-scoring finish in the world championship.

Wilson will miss a round of the World Rally Championship for the first time since 1997 when the Cumbrian skips Argentina after an ankle operation. Unfortunately for Wilson, doctor’s orders will keep him back at M-sport’s Cockermouth base this week.

M-sport’s client liaison manager Rich Millener will take over the team principal role in Villa Carlos Paz this week as M-sport prepares the cars for Camilli, Ostberg and WRC2 entrant Elfyn Evans.