M-Sport got an early Christmas present by managing to secure Ott Tanak for the 2023 WRC season. Now the team hopes he will be the key to help it return to the top after a difficult 2022.
It must feel as if Christmas has come early for M-Sport. Months of negotiations have finally yielded the present they all wanted: the signing of 2019 world rally championTanak rejoining the Ford squad that launched his WRC career would have prompted a collective sigh of relief, not only from an M-Sport team looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2022, but from the Estonian's legions of supporters, the WRC and rally fans across the globe.
While M-Sport's interest was clear, there were indeed hurdles. The words"drivers such as Ott Tanak come with big price tags" were bandied about by the team as the harsh realities of financing such a move, for an operation which doesn't boast the budgets of its factory rivals Toyota and Hyundai, became clear.
"Often it takes a lot longer to do something like this than people think. There are a lot of complex issues in terms of contracts and various bits that need to be sorted.Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport "But now we have a driver signed up for a full year who is capable, which gives us a huge opportunity. There are similarities to this year, but it does hark back to 2017 when we signed Ogier and we had an opportunity.
While Tanak is yet to fully understand his new Puma weapon after a short drive through M-Sport's Greystoke Forest proving grounds, the 35-year-old says the passion shown by the M-Sport team convinced him that this is the environment where he can challenge for the title.
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How M-Sport's Christmas came early with Tanak WRC signingAfter a disappointing 2022 World Rally Championship, M-Sport was given an early Christmas present when it got its deal with Ott Tanak across the line for the 2023 season. It was a move that looked unlikely at one stage, but the team now has its man and hopes this will herald a return to form
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