The British-based team will busy itself with running four hybrid-powered Puma Rally1 cars at next week’s Rallye Monte-Carlo (20 - 23 January), but has no official entry listed in WRC2. Instead, a factory Ford Fiesta Rally2 could take its 2022 bow at next month’s Rally Sweden.
“As you can imagine, we’ve been fairly flat-out with the [Rally1] cars,” said Millener. “Getting ready for Monte has been front and centre for us here. Once we’re past round one we’ll focus on the Rally2 programme some more.
“I think everybody knows how important the Fiesta Rally2 car is to us. It’s vital, and we want to be competing in WRC2, but we have to find the right team.”
Finn Jari Huttunen made the perfect start to his time with M-Sport, winning WRC2 at November’s FORUM8 ACI Rally Monza 2021 finale. His name is one of many on Millener’s list of potentials.
“Jari drove well and he’s very much in the mind,” he admitted. “We have a list of drivers we’re looking at and I’m not going to tell you exactly who’s on there. It is fair to say the list isn’t as long as we would perhaps like, but there’s plenty of talent and potential.
“We would like to have a car in Sweden and there are certainly drivers from that part of the world who could do a very good job for us. But it might be that we wait even for the third round in Croatia before we make any firm decisions. We’re not a huge rush on this one.”
WRC2 teams can score from five of six rallies in Europe. They can select a seventh event outside of Europe on which to score points.
Finland
Italy
Hungary