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Wednesday | 21 Dec 2022
In a world of fast starters, there remains no one faster in the World Rally Championship than the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team.
Sébastien Loeb’s victory at the Rallye Monte-Carlo was a dream come true for the British squad’s Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid.
Sadly for Malcolm Wilson’s team, that was the only victory in 2022. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty to cheer about for Puma. M-Sport team leader Craig Breen, drafted from Hyundai Motorsport in September 2021, was second in Rally Italia Sardegna.
Breen’s planned two-year stay at M-Sport fell apart at the end of the season, however – the Irishman preferred to return to the land of blue and orange to drive the i20 N Rally1 next season.
Pierre-Louis Loubet and Gus Greensmith both scored their first fastest times in the world championship and the former led a WRC round in Greece. Out to the Bauxites on an Acropolis Friday night, Loubet could barely contain himself.
Having led for two stages, he forfeited the top spot, but would go into service just 1.7 seconds behind the hero of his youth, compatriot and rallying royalty Sébastien Loeb.
While his hopes of winning may have faded, a puncture on Saturday ruined his chances of a maiden WRC podium.
Greensmith continued strongly, with the Brit running in the early third of the championship after a strong start to the season.
Adrien Fourmaux endured a difficult year, first crashing in Monte Carlo and then suffering more accidents later in the season. The Frenchman was benched for three of the last four rounds of the season.
And – if the start of the year was exciting for Wilson’s M-Sport troops, the end is perhaps even more so with the news that Ott Tänak is back at Dovenby Hall for next year.
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