M-Sport could use WRC drivers in ERC

M-Sport could parachute drivers from its World Rally Championship lineup into the European Rally Championship in response to the threat of Peugeot's new 208 T16.

Malcolm Wilson's team won the ERC opener in Austria in January with Robert Kubica driving one of its Ford Fiestas, but last year's Rally Poland winner Kajetan Kajetanowicz is the only ERC front-runner representing M-Sport and its latest R5 Fiesta full time.

With Peugeot's new car winning on its debut when Craig Breen triumphed on the Acropolis Rally, Wilson admitted he was considering putting WRC 'ringers' into the ERC to ensure the Fiesta stayed up front.

"I've no plans to at the moment but there's nothing to say that we won't put Ott Tanak out," said Wilson. "I need to make sure our cars are winning wherever possible, so we will probably do something."

The leading ERC driver in M-Sport machinery at present is actually Vasily Gryazin, who has got up to third in the standings driving the older S2000 variant of the Fiesta. Kajetanowicz is fourth in the championship after three rounds, 19 points behind leader Breen.

M-Sport sending in its WRC stars to showcase its feeder series cars is nothing new. Then works Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen popped into the Intercontinental Rally Challenge for the 2010 Monte Carlo Rally to give the S2000 Fiesta its debut and took victory.

Originally on Autosport.com