WILSON READY FOR TIGHT WRC BATTLE
British team head says competition will ramp up in 2018
World Rally Championship-winning team principal Malcolm Wilson has admitted he expects the competition to be even tougher as he seeks to defend M-sport’s title in 2018.
Interviewed for an Autosport podcast to be released later this month, Wilson also talked Ford’s input into 2018 – a move which was key in Sebastien Ogier’s decision to re-sign for the British squad next season.
Wilson pointed to the driver changes late this season and over the closed season as an indicator of just how competitive he expected 2018 to be.
“There’s going to be serious competition, there’s no question about that,” said Wilson. “Every manufacturer is going to be out there and definitely challenging to take that crown away from us. Hyundai has strengthened its line-up with Andreas [Mikkelsen]; we know Kris [Meeke] is very, very quick when things are right and we’ve lost one of our drivers in Ott [Tanak to Toyota] and we know how quick he is.
“The good thing is that we have some good, tight technical regulations, which should preclude any one team making a massive step – at least I hope they do! I’m sure the teams will find small things here and there, but it’s going to be tight. But I am really confident that our team will step up to this challenge, but it’s going to be a very big ask for us to retain both titles.”
This year has been one of the most competitive seasons in the history of the sport, but Wilson expects next season to go above and beyond.
“I’m willing to have a bet here and now,” he said, “that the championship will go down to the wire next year. It’s going to be one of the most exciting seasons ever. And this can only be good for the sport – and especially for the sport in the UK. I’ve been doing this job for 20 years and before that I was driving and not since the days of Group B have we seen these sort of levels of popularity. For us here in Britain and Ireland, we have the Colin [Mcrae] and Richard [Burns] impact again with Elfyn [Evans], Kris [Meeke] and Craig Breen. Everything is going in a positive direction. But, like I said, I know, sitting here, we’re not going to be able to win next year by the same margin we did this time. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll be right there and fighting.”
Asked to outline Ford’s involvement and what it means, Wilson added: “Sebastien [Ogier] made it very clear that he wanted to see Ford involvement and I do as well. I would love to think we could get back to the budgets our competitors have, but, at this point in time, that’s not going to happen.
“Ford Performance is controlled from America and we will be working closely with them on the technical side . Seb has met the people from Ford Performance, he met [global director, Ford Performance] Mark Rushbrook in Rally GB. The great thing for me is that we’ll have more technical support to keep us right at the very sharp end and that needs funding – but a lot of that stuff they can do in-house in America. The aero is one example where this is working, they have the facilities to really help us. There’s no question we had great technical support from Europe – and we shouldn’t forget that we were actually rallying a car in January this year that wasn’t even on sale to the public until May or June! But now we’re getting it from America where all the GT stuff comes from, there’s some really important aerospecific work being done with them, that kind of input and help is invaluable.”