EVANS FACES MORE TIME ON THE SIDELINES
Welsh M-sport man to miss Rally Germany as his back waits to heal
Elfyn Evans will miss Rally Germany later this month while he still recovers from the back injury he sustained at Rally Estonia.
While Motorsport News understands the M-sport Ford driver is nearing full fitness, there’s concern about the nature of the roads aggravating the injury again.
The British team is now assessing its options for who to put in Evans’ Ford Fiesta WRC.
M-sport Ford World Rally Team principal Richard Millener told MN: “Frustrating as it is for us to have a driver of Elfyn’s calibre on the bench, we have to respect the medical expertise. He’s getting there, but his back’s not quite right.
“As we know, Germany can be quite hard on the back with plenty of high-speed compressions and – in a dry rally – some fairly high g-loadings. What we don’t want to do is bring Elfyn back before he’s absolutely ready, only to have him tweak something and set himself back again.
Like I said, tough as this decision is, the only option we have is to wait for him to be ready. And when he is, the car’s ready for him.”
Asked about a potential replacement, Millener said the team had been in touch with the organisers of the Saarbrucken event and advised them of the situation. Officially, entries for Germany have closed.
“We’re looking at the options,” he said. “But I’m not going to discuss them with you before we’ve made a decision within the team and communicated that internally.”
MN understands Craig
Breen (see story, below), Hayden Paddon, Gus Greensmith and Eric Camilli are all potential candidates.
Evans admitted missing last week’s Rally Finland was one of the low points of his career.
Evans told MN: “It’s very frustrating to be missing rallies at such a critical point in the season, but I need to ensure the injury heals properly. As tempting as it would be to just get on with it and come back, the reality is that I need more time so that when I do return, I’m returning at full strength with no compromises.
“Me and Scott [Martin, co-driver] had a solid start and I’m doing everything I can to aid the process and be back as soon as possible.”