Gus Greensmith believes reliability is “becoming an issue” for the M-Sport World Rally Team as for the third rally in a row his event was blighted by some kind of problem in Italy.
Greensmith finished 26th overall in Sardinia having retired twice with first a suspected transmission issue on day one and then an electrical problem on the second day.
It came off the back of a career best performance in Portugal where Greensmith claimed fifth overall, but he felt that could’ve finished higher had his Ford Fiesta WRC not developed a throttle problem on Saturday afternoon.
And two rounds ago in Croatia, hydraulic issues – which chiefly affected braking performance – prevented Greensmith from keeping Toyota junior Takamoto Katsuta behind him which eventually lost him sixth place.
Speaking to DirtFish about his Sardinian weekend, Greensmith said he’s “pretty happy with the job I’ve done” but the myriad technical issues he’s been experiencing need to be ironed out.
“I was happy with the work that I did with the engineers to kind of improve the car, and then that was kind of clear throughout the weekend because we got faster and faster,” he said.
“And then [on Sunday] the speed was pretty good. But the reliability is becoming an issue now. It’s three rallies in a row where I’ve had the rally ruined by technical issues not at my doing, so we need to get on top of it now.
We don’t want to go to Kenya and just be driving around managing issues. We want to go there and competeGus Greensmith
“We’ve had quite a lot of different ones,” he added. “In Croatia it was hydraulics. On Friday it was the transmission, and then we’ve had this recurring one which seems to turn up every single day, and [Saturday] put me out for good.
“I don’t know. Fingers crossed, because we don’t want to go to Kenya and just be driving around managing issues. We want to go there and compete.
Asked what the “recurring” problem is, Greensmith replied: “I think I’d get in trouble for saying. Probably keep my mouth shut.
“Like I said, the car is not my responsibility, driving is. So I just focused on making the best out of the situation that we were dealt. I feel like I’ve done a good job doing that this weekend.”
