Ford boss Malcolm Wilson has said that there will be no holding back on the Wales Rally GB next week and that
Mikko Hirvonen and
Jari-Matti Latvala will both be told to go flat-out.
The M-Sport-run outfit heads to the season finale trailing Citroen by eleven points in the race for the manufacturers' title and that means a repeat of the one-two finish last time out in Japan is all but essential for the 'Blue Oval'.
Speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio recently, Wilson Sr added though that he is confident they can do very well come the finish on December 7.
"There is only one instruction and initially Mikko and Jari-Matti both have to drive flat-out. There is nothing else that we can do," he explained. "Okay we will monitor what happens during the event, but certainly from the outset they have to be right up there. We have got to finish first and second. We cannot afford to hang back in any shape or form.
"Last year we finished first and second in GB with Marcus [Gronholm] and Mikko and I am confident we can achieve a similar result this year. Mikko and Jari-Matti are two of the most exciting drivers' in the championship. However we are obviously reliant on what [
Citroen's] Sebastien [Loeb] and Dani [Sordo] do too.
"If we get the same result as what happened in Japan then that will be enough for us to retain our third [manufacturers] title by one point. But our guys can only do what they can do.
"If we do finish first and second that would be great, but we will still, as I said, then be dependent on Sebastien and Dani."
As for if the changes to the route will make things unpredictable, Wilson agreed that it probably will spice things up a little.
"I don't know exactly who has done those stages in the past - or if any of the drivers have done them. But they will be different from the last time they did them," he continued. "A small percentage of the rally is a bit like a new rally - a bit like Japan. Again those types of conditions tend to favour our drivers. We would probably hope for a bigger percentage of new stages every year. We will just wait and see.
