Greensmith tasked with proving M-sport’s Fiesta R5 product
Gus Greensmith is set to get more rallies in M-sport’s new R5 car in order to prove the machine’s pace, instead of returning to the Ford Fiesta WRC.
Greensmith impressed on his planned debut in the WRC car in Portugal – where he had to retire after a heavy landing on the Fafe jump – before also showing strong pace in Finland and Germany after being called in to replace the injured Elfyn Evans.
M-sport Ford World Rally Team principal Rich Millener said that the team would be “silly” not to consider Greensmith for next season and that the R5’s performance on the next few rallies is more important than its
WRC programme.
“We keep putting him in the car for the reason that Elfyn isn’t there, there’s plenty of other people we could look at but he’s been with us a long time and done very well, we’d be silly not to consider him for the future,” Millener told MN.
“We don’t want any pressure on him and just see what he can do for the last few events.
“We want to put Gus back in the R5 car to help him show the potential of the car as, in some ways, that’s more important than the WRC programme at the minute.
“If we can secure some good results that really helps us on that side. He’s had three really good rallies [in a Fiesta WRC] in a row and that’s more than he was expecting this year.”
Eric Camilli failed to extract the best out of the new R5 Fiesta on its WRC 2 Pro debut in Finland, but after adapting his driving style in Germany, the car scored stage wins.