M-Sport has become the big surprise at the start of the 2022 WRC. But not only its victories draw attention to this team, nor the drivers it has – Sébastien Loeb has returned to the top of the podium with them –, but their opinions have not left anyone indifferent either.
Formula 1 has been the target of Richard Millener , the season’s breakout team principal, and the Briton has had little trouble comparing the two major categories of motorsport in an interview with Motorsport.com.
The cars used in the two competitions are clearly very different, but they also have in common that they have become hybrid vehicles over the last few years. For Millener, however, the similarities end here and he doesn’t want them to continue either.
“The WRC doesn’t have to try to be like Formula 1,” Millener said, making no secret of the long-held belief. “I’ve been to some grands prix recently and it was great, but mostly because I knew a lot of people. But it’s hard to get into F1.
The Briton refers to the difficulties that fans have in approaching the vehicles and the drivers, since although you can enter the paddock with the appropriate pass, in his opinion, he believes that it is difficult to see the cars, to the pilots and to the action up close”.
“In rallies, you can go to see the stages, practically anywhere in the areas dedicated to the public because they are safe,” insists the director of M-Sport. “You can move, you’re not tied to a grandstand.”
Millener is also aware that Formula 1 drags large masses, but believes that they are concentrated in very small spaces.
“In rallies, the situation is completely different. There are many people scattered over hundreds of kilometers,” he explains, justifying that, at times, there seem to be not so many spectators. “I remember in Argentina a few years ago, that in a single special there were more than 200,000 people to see it. Two hundred thousand! That can only be seen in rallies,” he says.
“We don’t want to be [like] Formula 1,” Millener said. “We have the possibility of going through the center of the cities, through small towns and doing it in electric mode. We can also show the cars to the children, to the youngsters, trying to get closer to them too, because they are cars that derive from the vehicles of street”.
Its last reason to differentiate itself from the premier category of motorsports refers to the spaces used for competition. Formula 1 competes on closed circuits and sometimes wanders through urban areas prepared for its arrival, but for Millener, none of this surpasses the nature of the WRC .
“We can also change the scenery: asphalt, snow, dirt… We also run through the woods, between towns, through the countryside, hills, mountains, etc. There we connect with the landscape. I don’t know if rallies are the best series , but I think that the rallies, as they are, are excellent”, he concluded.
