M-Sport team principal Richard Millener says the team would consider running a third Ford Fiesta WRC on an event later this year – potentially as a way to help decide who is going to be sitting in a factory Puma Rally1 next season.
M-Sport has yet to commit to any of its drivers for 2022 and the firm’s managing director Malcolm Wilson has always been a big believer in Rally Finland being the ultimate leveller in terms of who’s got the pace.
“We do have a third chassis,” Millener told DirtFish. “Running as third car is a lot of budget, but if Malcolm was willing to allocate that budget, it could be an interesting way to look at driver selection.
“We’ll have a look at that one later in the year – we’ll see how the year progresses first and see when we’ve got more of an idea of what we’re looking at for the driver line-up and the plan for 2022.”
![Andreas Mikkelsen](https://www-dirtfish.imgix.net/2021/07/SI202105100271_news.jpg?auto=compress&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=520&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=70&w=780&wpsize=entry-main)
Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
There remains the potential for Andreas Mikkelsen to drive a Fiesta WRC in Finland. The WRC2 leader should be free for the Jyväskylä event.
He is likely to drive Acropolis Rally Greece in September as his sixth WRC2 round with Toksport – and having missed Safari Rally Kenya, his seventh WRC2 outing in a Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo has to be the end of season longhaul to Japan.
Gus Greensmith is guaranteed to start all five remaining rounds in a WRC car as he completes a full program, while the second car is currently being shared by Teemu Suninen and Adrien Fourmaux.