Gus Greensmith is very motivated ahead of his debut with the Ford Puma Rally1 in the new hybrid era of the World Rally Championship.
In fact, at the Monte Carlo Rally to be held in January we will see for the first time in action the cars with specifications built around a more robust chassis that will house a new 100kW hybrid unit, connected to a 1.6-liter turbo engine (that of the WRC 2021).
The addition of the hybrid unit will make the Rally1 cars heavier than previous models, while being able to take advantage of the hybrid’s 500hp for a short time.
At first these vehicles will be slower than the previous generation (with drivers and fans who have already criticized the choice), but Greensmith is confident that with the developments they will be able to slowly be as fast as the old ones.
“It’s a really exciting project and everything looks fine, I think this generation of cars will be exciting,” says the M-Sport standard bearer.
“They’ve had a lot of criticism, but I think, along the way, they will be much faster than the current WRCs, which is great.”
“It’s just a matter of developing them over time, the cars we’ve driven so far were built in 2017 and five years is a lot of development time, but it’s a natural process.”
“I think everyone has seen the Puma test videos on YouTube, but there is constant development and it’s not over yet.”
Gus Greensmith, M-Sport Ford WRT
Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
After showing good pace and consistency with the old Fiesta, Greensmith is charged up for the start of 2022 with the new Puma.
“I’m looking forward to it and I definitely feel ready to get into the Puma. We know M-Sport can build a very strong car right from the start.”
“Just looking at the support they have had from Ford and Ford Performance, which has been much greater than in the past, I think everyone is rightly optimistic.”
“We were already fast, but it was a matter of being consistent and bringing home results. We made only one mistake in the whole year, so we have improved a lot and we are reliable. But next year with Puma we want to be even faster. “.
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