Craig Breen and Paul Nagle are ready as they ever will be for this week’s Monte Carlo Rally.
After months of testing in their new Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1 the new era of the World Rally Championship gets underway on Thursday night.
“It’s hard to believe it’s only a few days away. It’s been kind of a lifetime getting ready for now, and these last couple of weeks and months have been even more intense again,” he said. “I just can’t wait to get started really. The amount of work that’s gone into the project is really incredible. Finally, next week, we have a stopwatch on the car for the first time against our competitors. Let’s see where we’re at.”
Despite the well documented testing incident last week Ireland’s only fulltime crew in the WRC are very confident heading to this weekend’s season-opener.
“Honestly speaking, I still feel quite good. Perhaps famous last words, but the last comment that I made to Paul [Nagle, co-driver] before we set out on that run was everything feels amazing. I feel really confident,” he added.
“As much as it was a bit gut-wrenching knowing the effort that had gone in to prepare it, it was something very, very unlucky. It wasn’t like I arrived into a corner a gear too high and ran out of road or something. It was just a series of unfortunate events that led us to go off the road, but confidence is high.
“The work that’s gone in has been so intense by everybody behind the scenes, both from M-Sport and Ford Performance and everybody involved in the programme. I think the excitement is still keeping that confidence high and the anticipation. I still just can’t wait to get going and can’t wait to get started. I still feel good.”
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