No star name is no problem, says Lapworth

MINI World Rally Team technical boss David Lapworth has stated that having two young drivers in the team is not a problem for the new team.

"I don't think we're missing anything. It's nice to know where you are with the car, but until you asked me whether we would miss a big name driver, I honestly hadn't thought we were missing something at all.” said Lapworth.

MINI have, however, signed a driver with a history in Kris Meeke, with Meeke having won the IRC drivers title at his first attempt, and without having prior experience of a S2000 car. Meeke has prior experience of the WRC, having spent four years in the J-WRC, two with Citroen, and won multiple events, including his debut for the French squad, Rallye Monte Carlo 2004.

Rumours suggested that Marcus Gronholm would sign for MINI, and he even carried out a test for the team. It was then believed that he would join the team in a testing role, but little has been heard since. However, the chances of the double World Champion signing are becoming slimmer and slimmer.

Lapworth says that Gronholm would be a good test driver: “Working with Marcus Gronholm is great, you put him in the car and he goes flat out. You get very simple feedback from him: 'It does this, it does this and it does this.'”

With the Finn’s return becoming a lesser chance, Citroen refugee Dani Sordo is said to be about to sign for the team.

The driver you [have] mention[ed], the one who was in the car earlier this week [Dani Sordo], might be young, but he's got four years of experience in a very good car [the Citroen C4 WRC],"

One significant testing plus the team have is in Markko Martin. Martin has previously been a test driver with Subaru, when they started with the Impreza S14, and with Ford earlier this year. On top of that he has multiple WRC starts and wins under his belt, and has been a full works driver for Subaru, Ford and Peugeot.

Meeke has already jumped right into testing for the team, and Lapworth has been quick to praise him. Meeke has just completed four days of testing earlier this week.

"The feedback we get from Kris is very logical and common sense. Okay, Kris doesn't have massive World Rally Car experience, but he has driven plenty of them. And, anyway, when we're starting from scratch with new technical regulations, you can do without any preconceived ideas about what a World Rally Car should do."