M-SPORT’S 2022 RALLY1 PROJECT INDEPENDENT OF 2021 BUDGET
Team principal Rich Millener says the M-Sport team is heading in a “new direction”
M-Sport’s Rally1 project remains on target with Richard Millener telling Motorsport News that it’s being funded separately to its current Fiesta-based World Rally Car effort.
Team principal Millener has made no secret of M-Sport’s limited budget but confirmed the build of the hybrid-focused Rally1 car isn’t taking finance away from its existing
World Rally Championship programme, adding that the necessary resources for its
2022 contender have already been allocated.
“We’re very lucky in the fact that Ford are fully committed to [the 2022 car costs] and that’s a separate allocation of budget to the [current] programme,” Millener told MN. However he also urged caution that its 2021 WRC attack – for which Gus Greensmith is the only confirmed season-long driver – has to run to a shoestring budget due to the effects that Covid-19 has had on its customer car sales and parts business.
“We have to be mindful of
2021 and the after effects from last year,” Millener said.
“We’re having to re-focus and go in a new direction for the company at the moment by making sure we can operate with less people and be really strict on all our spending and cost. But, at the same time, you’ve still got to balance that with being as competitive as possible. Certainly, it’s been a challenge to match what’s available and be as competitive as we can but we are happy with the balance.”
Contrary to Hayden Paddon’s comments in last week’s MN (February 11), the new Rally1 rules are frozen for three years, rather than five. And with hybrid kits due to be delivered to teams next month, the development of the new-generation Rally1 cars – the rules for which Hyundai, M-Sport and Toyota helped to formalise – is expected to be completed significantly ahead of the New Zealander’s own project.