Richard Millener: “We had to take a step back”

Is M-Sport s’est montré tout de suite favorable au passage à l’hybride ?

We believe that the WRC must reflect what is happening in the market and contribute to achieving the brands' objectives. Currently, we are behind, so it is time to turn to hybrid. It was not going to be easy, but I believe we are heading in the right direction.

Why did you think it would be complicated?

Because all the manufacturers had their own vision on this subject. However, we managed to come up with something that suits everyone. Before succeeding in attracting other brands, which cannot happen before 2023 or 2024, it was important to ensure that the teams present remained.

For your part, have you started working on your 1 Rally2022?

Major decisions still have to be made, particularly regarding the hybridization system (which will be developed by Compact Dynamics). What we must carefully evaluate is whether everything is in place to embark on such a project. However, we have started in certain sectors. If we were originally supposed to be 2 years old, now there are only 18 months left and maybe less.

The car would need to be driven quickly in 2021 in order to have a full year of testing, but that won't be easy. By the time the regulations are finalized, we have probably lost 6 months... but it could get even worse. We will have to see how we can make up for this delay.

Should announcements about cost reductions help you?

This is going in the right direction. Take the example of changing gears while driving. It's nice to have it, but will it make a real difference from the outside if we go back to what we had on the 2013 cars? Just by removing this single element, it is possible to make significant savings. There are several areas like this on the car where we can avoid spending large sums. We will also have to evaluate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic to see if the budgets available in a few months will be equivalent to those we have known.

With all the limitations and other simplifications, will these Rally1s look like improved Rally2s?

It is true that this is inspired by what worked in R5. We had to take a step back! Continuing to develop and operate current cars was impossible. The economic situation does not allow it. Since the withdrawal of Citroën, having 7 or 8 Rally1s at the start of the rounds is not enough. Although not everyone agreed with this idea, especially the pilots, it was necessary.

The WRC is not the F1. There will never be the same budgets. We couldn't continue in this direction, we had to go back a little. The cars that were competing in 2011, when we moved from the Focus to the Fiesta, are a good example. Since then, we have continued to progress until today and I am sure that the process will resume after 2022.

Are you hopeful that Ford will invest more?

They are fully aware of what we do. We're working closely with the Ford Performance people, but I don't think they'll come back officially.