M-Sport Ford has announced its squad for the 2021 World Rally Championship, while Teemu Suninen and Gus Greensmith remain, Esapekka Lappi has been replaced by Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux.
M-Sport continues to promote young talent, which has so far been successful with Ott Tänak, who will later become world champion in 2020 at competitor Toyota, and runner-up Elfyn Evans. The Briton Gus Greensmith will contest his first full World Championship season in the Ford Fiesta WRC in 2021. So far in 2020 he has achieved three top ten placements.
Together with the second Ford Fiesta WRC, Teemu Suninen will only contest part of the program this year, starting in Monte Carlo. Suninen has since parted ways with his experienced co-pilot Jarmo Lehtinen, who is devoting himself to other tasks, and is on the job for a replacement.
The young Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux shares the Ford Fiesta WRC with Suninen at selected events and is also contesting a full WRC 2 campaign with the Ford Fiesta Rally2 with EcoBoost drive, starting with the classic start at the Monte-Carlo Rally. Together with the Belgian co-driver Renaud Jamoul, he would like to continue the development with further experience in the first support series of the FIA World Rally Championship as well as further opportunities at the highest level of the sport.
M-Sport Ford’s distinctive paint job for 2020 will also be carried over to 2021, albeit with a few minor changes. A new roof motif should be highlighted in these changes and extends the popular design with more blue flashes. Greensmith and Suninen’s Ford Fiesta will both wear the Castrol paint scheme at the Monte-Carlo Rally. In addition, some Pirelli logos have been added, the Italian manufacturer becomes the official tire supplier for the FIA World Rally Championship.
Team Principal Richard Millener said: “M-Sport has a long tradition of helping young drivers, this is very important to Malcolm Wilson, and we have hired Teemu, Gus and Adrien to continue their development in 2021. All three have a lot of talent and we have developed programs to get the best out of every driver while enabling further progress in the different phases of their careers. “
Millener on Greensmith: “Gus had some impressive split and exam times last year and now it’s time for him to develop those skills. We are excited to offer him his first full season of the top spec Fiesta and we want him and Elliott to get the maximum experience from a full rally and test program – not just learning the rallies but also the intricacies of the setup, engineering and everything that will help you become a world class driver. I know they are already putting a lot of effort into making sure they get the most out of this opportunity and I am really excited to see how they develop as the year progresses. “
Commenting on Suninen, he said: “We all know that Teemu has the speed, we saw that when he drove the Ford Fiesta WRC for the first time, and we felt it was important to find a way to continue with us this year can. We managed to create a partial WRC program for him and we will target specific events where he and the Fiesta can be competitive. It’s a shame to have lost Jarmo, but Teemu has learned a lot from the short time they spent together and I’m sure he’ll make good use of that this year. “
He commented on Fourmaux: “We were also very impressed by Adrien last year and we are delighted to be able to offer him another complete WRC 2 program with the Ford Fiesta Rally2 as well as a few other outings with the Fiesta WRC. We want to make sure that he can experience as many rallies as possible – continue to present the performance of the Fiesta Rally2, but also assert himself against the best in the world. “
Millener continued: “We will continue to work hard to see if we can expand Teemu’s program and add more top drivers to the roster, but we also have to be honest and say that the COVID situation does things for us made us extremely difficult. However, we hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel and I know that every single member of the team will continue to do their best as we push for the best possible results in 2021. “
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