Gus Greensmith faces the last appointment of his career alongside Chris Patterson this weekend. The crew of the M-Sport Ford team will disband at the end of the penultimate WRC 2021 event.
Patterson, who returned to business this year after retiring at the end of 2018, was called a few months ago to take over from Elliott Edmondson. The goal was to try to advance Gus, who was going through a stalemate in his growth.
The separation between the two was confirmed by Greensmith in the opening press conference of the Rally of Spain: “This will be the last event that Chris and I will compete together. It is rather sad, but unfortunately our bond only lasted a year. “.
“Although I have tried in every way to hold him back, and I am still trying, this will be our last WRC event together,” confirmed the British pilot.
Considering that Greensmith will still have to take part in the last event of the season, the ACI Rally Monza Italia, the search for the new navigator for the last season will start and, perhaps, also for what will be Gus’s navigator during the next season .
“I know how important it is to have a valuable co-driver next to me. We are taking the time to make the best possible decision. The last decision, to call Chris, was. So I’m sure the next one will be fine too.”
In the shortlist of candidates to take the place of Chris Patterson there are Aaron Johnston, who this weekend sails Takamoto Katsuta after the separation with Oliver Solberg, but also Stuart Loudon, who has already sailed Greensmith at the Rally Italia Sardegna due to the unavailability of Patterson.
Together, Greensmith and Patterson took three Top 5. The best result came at Rally Safari, in Kenya, thanks to a fourth place due to a penalty imposed by the marshals on teammate Adrien Fourmaux right at the end of the event. .