Is WRC2 Pro an opportunity or a flop? Certainly the FIA’s bold plan to divide the WRC2 activities into the Professional and Amateur sections has got off to a low key start regarding the entry levels in the Pro division. It is clear, however, that teams are gradually making plans and M-Sport’s Richard Millener explained how things are progressing in his team. “I was a supporter of the division of championships from the start. We were pushing for it before it was passed through the Rallies Commission," Millener says.
"It was not fair for private WRC2 competitors to be up against rivals who have huge budgets. The problem is that WRC2 is a victim of its own success because it was so popular!
"Our community wanted to get as many cars in as possible, but I feel that WRC2 Pro is not being pushed enough by the FIA, event organisers or WRC Promoter. "This new formula serves as another step in the upwards ladder. We have seen with Pontus Tidemand that once you win WRC2 your only option is to go to WRC car. "Life in an R5 and World Rally Cars is so different. If, however, you go into WRC2 Pro and work with a manufacturer there's an opportunity that the manufacturer can find you some time in a WRC car to test.”

Lukasz Pieniazek battles with a punctured tyre on the Tour de Corse. Photo: Holmes

M-Sport will make entries on 10 rallies, two drivers (Lukasz Pieniazek and Gus Greensmith) will do 10 rallies each over the course of this season. “It is clear we are not in a position to fund their rallying, so these guys are driving for us on a customer programme basis, but we can also use them for testing with the new R5 car and for functions with Ford that our two main drivers can't attend," he adds. "We're bringing them into our team in the hope that they may be a driver who we could step up into the main team. I think all the main teams should be doing this, like last year when Citroen ran Stephane Lefebvre and Hyundai had Jari Huttunen.” Lukasz Pieniazek is going to do a few more WRC2 Pro events later in the season, with the new car. Gus' programme is a bit more spread over the year.

Gus Greensmith's WRC2 Pro and WRC campaigns for 2019 are in M-Sport Fiestas.

“Gus will be in Argentina and Chile, Lukasz won't. Then after that they're pretty much doing the majority of the rest of the season together. On most events from after Chile we will have two cars per event. "The first rally for the new R5 will be Finland. We haven't done a lot of marketing on the new car yet, but we have 13-14 deposits paid already following an email that we sent to the customer base we have for the current car.
"Our goal is obviously to produce as many cars as possible. The new car is a full re-design, everything has been looked at.
"There will be strong performance in the engine, strong performance in the bodyshell - we've taken a lot of time to make it lighter and more modern. "Suspension's changed, all the damper design has changed, the whole car should be better in every department.”

More feature stories:

https://rallysportmag.com/prc-changes-to-make-taylors-subaru-lighter-faster/

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