Wilson unsure of WRC outings beyond Greece

Matthew Wilson has admitted that he is unsure how many more appearances he will make in this year’s world championship following the Acropolis Rally.

The M-Sport Stobart driver is tackling his sixth full season in the WRC and starts round seven in Greece this week in seventh position in the drivers’ standings.

Despite his consistent start to the campaign in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, the Briton doesn’t have the funding finalised for the rest of the year.

He told Wrc.com: “We’re getting there with the budget but it’s still up in the air. I wouldn’t say I am confident for [doing the next round in] Finland but I’m more confident than I was a bit ago. For sure we’ll be doing some [events] in the second half of the year.”

Wilson continued: “The preference would be gravel rallies although I enjoyed Spain last year with the mixed surface and Germany went well for us when I had a good fight with Kimi [Raikkonen]. The best case scenario would be to do all the remaining [six] rounds but we’ll definitely do some before [Wales Rally] GB.”

The 24-year-old has been M-Sport Stobart’s second nominated scoring driver alongside Mads Ostberg since Rally d’Italia Sardegna, taking over from Henning Solberg following the Norwegian’s disappointing sequence of results.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding his programme of events in 2011, Wilson said he was making progress towards finalising a budget to compete in 2012.

“We’re working on stuff for next year and we’re trying to really focus on that as much as we can because the security of next year would be very important,” said Wilson.

Of his chances of a top 10 finish in Greece, Wilson added: “Some of the stages are rough and you have to be careful in some places but the roads are nice and predictable. But there’s no doubt it’s going to be a car-breaker.”