After falling and breaking his
collarbone whilst training in his native Finland, Latvala was ruled
out of the South American classic. Initially, semi-works Ford drivers
such as Evegny Novikov, Henning Solberg and Ott Tanak were said to be
in the running for the seat. Marcus Gronholm and Craig Breen came in
as outsiders, then a seemingly rank outsider in Dani Sordo appeared.
The reason Sordo was considered such an
outsider was due to the fact he is contracted to the Prodrive World
Rally Team. Then Prodrive announced they would miss both Argentina
and Greece, leaving Sordo a free agent for both rallies.
Prodrive then granted Sordo a temporary
release from his contract, so as he can make the switch to Ford for
Argentina. Sordo's switch might even prove helpful to the development
of the MINI John Cooper Works WRC, but Global Rally News expects that
Ford will have a clause in place that will prevent a transfer of
intellectual property from the Fiesta to the MINI, and vice versa.
Malcolm Wilson, director of the Ford
WRT, praised the management of the Prodrive WRT for being “extremely
gracious” in helping them find a suitable replacement. He said:
“We’re fortunate to have a driver of Dani’s calibre to join us.
His experience at Rally Argentina was a key factor in the decision,
having started the rally five times. The agreement is for one rally
only, and I would like to thank the management of Dani’s current
team, who were extremely gracious in helping us in such challenging
circumstances.”
Sordo has a good history in Argentina,
having competed on the rally for 5 times, scoring one podium whilst
driving for Citroen in their all-conquering C4 WRC.
Latvala is hoping to be back fit for
the Acropolis Rally in late May, but his championship chances are now
realistically over. Wilson added that, although he was disappointed
at the fact Latvala would miss Argentina, he said it was the best
decision.
“We’re naturally disappointed that
Jari-Matti will miss the rally, but ensuring a full recovery as
quickly as possible is the most important thing for him and the
team.” he said.
Sordo's first test for Ford will take
place today (Wednesday) at the team's private testing facility, close
to their Cumbrian's headquarters.
No comments:
Post a Comment