Young stars impress boss Wilson

Malcolm Wilson has spoken of his admiration for rising stars Mads Ostberg and Evgeny Novikov ahead of Philips Rally Argentina, which got underway with the Qualifying Stage this morning.

Ostberg claimed his maiden victory in the FIA World Rally Championship powered by Nokia in Portugal earlier this month in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC built by Wilson’s M-Sport organisation. Novikov, meanwhile, landed his first WRC podium finish in an M-Sport Fiesta on the Algarve-based round.

“Mads has had a terrific start to the season and if you look at his last four rallies, taking in Rally GB at the end of last year as he didn’t do Monte-Carlo this year, then he’d be leading the championship,” said Wilson. “His consistency has been very good.

“As for Evgeny, when you consider his level of experience and the fact he’s doing no testing, he’s been incredible and did another really good job in Portugal.”

Of M-Sport’s other promising young charge, Ott Tanak, Wilson admitted there was still some room for improvement from the rapid Estonian.

“In fairness we’ve not seen the real potential of Ott and there have been some mistakes but there’s still a long way to go,” he said.