The World Rally Championship needed it, Ott Tänak needed it, but more importantly M-Sport needed it.
Whatever way you look at it, Rally Sweden was a great event but it was the greatest vindication yet that M-Sport was right to bring Tänak back to the team ahead of the 2023 season.
There’s no denying Tänak was off the boil somewhat on Monte Carlo, but there’s caveats to that. It’s far from his favorite event, and it was clear to see that he was still adjusting to the Puma Rally1.
Even on Sweden he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the car, but this time he was happy enough that he could extract just enough performance to take the fight to Craig Breen.
It was a brilliant battle, with Tänak initially getting ahead before it swung to Breen and then swung back to Tänak late on Saturday. But from there, it was his. He didn’t leave anything to chance, firing on a full new set of tires for Sunday’s opening stage and putting more breathing space between him and Breen.
That was the catalyst in enabling him to go on and win Sweden. A great strategic play, and his experience shone through.
And this is exactly why M-Sport wanted Tänak in the team so badly.
In Tänak it has a driver that can push a car right to its limit even if he’s not entirely at one with it. He can work around the deficits and make it work.
On Saturday, Malcolm Wilson explained that although he hoped they’d be able to fight for a podium in Sweden, he thought a victory was out of the question. And to see Tänak there in the hunt completely exceeded all expectations.
There’s issues with the Puma, no doubt, but Wilson is confident they can be resolved once the car gets back to Dovenby Hall. The fact that Tanak’s been so quick to identify them allows the team to work out what the solution is.
M-Sport team principal Richard Milener told DirtFish it was the level of Tänak’s feedback that was a huge draw in M-Sport wanting to sign him.
“We needed a lot of effort to sign him for exactly those reasons, because we know what he’s capable of,” he said.
“I think it’s great to see the car doing what we knew it could do, and there’s a few people that were always open to critiquing the car in various areas, but I think this is one of the fastest rallies on the calendar.
“So to show where we are I think gives a strong indication of how good the car is as well.”
M-Sport didn’t exactly have slow drivers last year. Breen proved that this weekend in Sweden.
He was quick when he was in the groove with the Puma, but all too often he came a cropper, having a crash or an incident at the worst possible moments.
Those mistakes got to Breen and he quickly mounted more and more pressure on himself, which just encouraged more errors.
But he wasn’t slow.
And fundamentally, the fact that all of M-Sport driver’s made regular errors last year does beg the question as to the quality of feedback the team was getting.
We don’t know what the answer to that is right now, but what we do know is M-Sport’s much happier with the feedback it’s getting now, and it’s pushing the team in a new direction that should result in an even more competitive car.
This is what makes Tänak’s season such a tantalizing prospect. With an imperfect car the Tänak and M-Sport partnership has gained its first victory of the year, and looks a match for Hyundai and Toyota.
But this is just the beginning.
If it can develop the car in the manner and at the pace that Tänak wants, then both could become a real force to be reckoned with all season long.
That would be a huge turn in fortunes for M-Sport, transforming its own medium-term prospects, and one that will get so many WRC fans frothing at the mouth.
It was obvious to all why Tänak and M-Sport wanted to work together in 2023, but Sweden is already proving that partnering together was the right decision to make.
