13 events later and Craig Breen's WRC outing for 2022 comes to an end with the disappointment of what might have been.
It's been the story of his year with M-Sport Ford where early success hinted at a promising season only for all too common missteps hampering his chances of moving up in the standings.
The season is now over with the return set for January when the traveling circus moves back to Monte Carlo but for now a lengthy debrief will be underway in Cumbria where engineers and tacticians pull apart the year that was.
Craig Breen (IRL) is seen during the World Rally Championship in Umea, Sweden on 27.2.2022. Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool
It all began so well for the Slieverue man as he stood on the podium in third place at the season opener in the snow of Monte Carlo. It was the first competitive drive in the new hybrid-engined Ford Puma for Breen and it gave great cause for optimism going forward. The veteran (but not retired) Sebastien Loeb showed that the old dog can still flash his teeth winning on the icy hill stages around Monaco.
A month later in Sweden Breen began well in the Swedish tundra - although an early warning sign saw him spin just 5k into the stage. While be recovered on got back moving it wasn't long until he found trouble again. Misjudging a high-speed section his Puma crashed into a snowbank getting stuck - he was unable to remove the car under it's own steam and the stewards threw the red flags halting the session. He resumed the following day, but the weekend was lost to a 36th-place finish.
The next two outings at Croatia and Portugal proved more fruitful. 4th and 8th place finishes on the tarmac and gravel surfaces helped him to move back towards the important end of the championship standings with the new found success backed up again in Sardinia where he would take second place behind former world champion Ott Tanak.
A messy weekend in Kenya was hampered by the team getting their setup wrong with none of the Puma's properly contending. The safari challenges proved too much but luckily for Ford they weren't the only team who had problems. The grueling conditions tested every team to the limit and as cars began to drop out of contention Breen was able to make his way up the standings into a 6th-place finish for a healthy share of points.
Moving in to the second half of the season the mistakes and issues became more frequent.
Estonia looked to be one where he could challenge for his first win on the WRC. He had gone well there previously claiming second place in 2020 & 2021.
Breen had led the event after the opening ceremonial stage and had settled in to hold fourth in the early goings on Saturday. His split times were a close match for the leaders leading into stage 4, but then a miscalculated left-hander saw him veer off to the right and wide into the undergrowth.
What should have been a routine slip-up proved to be far more worrying as something hard and solid was lying hidden in the grass. “He’s actually broken the front suspension where he’s gone off in the grass,” said team boss Richard Millener. He added “I would say he’s probably hit a rock or something and broken the front suspension.”
What had been his most successful event in prior years saw Breen taking home a 30th-place finish after the mechanics had gotten the car back on the road.
More heartache was to follow in Finland. Carrying speed through a sequence of turns, Breen went over a left-handed jump with his car coming down hard on the right verge hitting a rock hidden in the grass. Millner was less than pleased in his analysis "Definitely would look from the outside like too much speed on a corner when there's no room for error on the outside. There's no denying that we want to see the results and we want Craig to be pushing to be in the fight but it has to be balanced with not ending up in the situation we've ended up with."
32nd place was the reward for Breen in Finland. A disappointing follow-up to what had been an already disappointing Estonian expedition.
Hoping to dust himself down in Belgium Breen was hampered further still when he crashed on stage 10 at the Ypres Rally. Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle both emerged unharmed from a roll that tipped the car into a dike. A small fire had broken out in the car but was quickly extinguished by the marshalls. It proved to be his worst finish of the season in his 63rd.
His luck finally turned in Greece after what had been a torrid three months. A rub of the green was needed for the Waterford man and he managed to avoid the pitfalls that had plagued him in the earlier parts of the season. While he did clip a ditch on the opening day as well as being the only driver to puncture he managed to regroup and drove impressively for the weekend to return to the top end of the leaderboard. A fifth-place finish was his best since the sixth-place end to Kenya.
Moving back to the Southern Hemisphere Breen began well at Rally New Zealand. He led the race following the Thursday start.
The brief uptick in form that began in Greece was quickly ended on Saturday when he slid down into a ditch having carried too much speed into a right-handed corner. The corner in question was the exact same spot that Colin McRae went off on in 2002.
The damage to the Puma was substantial enough that it had to be retired from the event with the mechanics on call to repair the damage. 19th place is the best he could manage after fighting back to pick up places on Sunday. A debut in New Zealand that will not be fondly remembered.
Coming to Catalunya Breen knew that an important relationship was coming to an end. His co-driver Paul Nagle had announced his retirement and would not be in the passenger seat for the season closer in Japan. After eighteen years and 102 WRC starts the Kerry native was set to hang us the helmet with James Fulton coming in to join Breen in the Puma for 2023.
The pair had to suffice themselves with a ninth-place finish as their partnership came to an end.
Craig Breen (IRL) and Paul Nagle (GBR) Of team M-Sport Ford WRT are seen during World Rally Championship Spain in Salou, Spain on October 23, 2022. Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool
With a new co-driver alongside him for the land of the rising sun, it wasn't the fresh start Breen would have liked.
He did clock the fastest time in the opening stage and held fifth place after three stages but after just 5 miles of stage four Breen's Puma clipped a barrier and ended any hopes he had of claiming a podium finish. A 24th-place finish was an all too familiar type of number to see beside Breen's name at the end of the event.
After 11 months and 13 events, the Slieverue man finishes 7th in the Championship standings as the best-placed of the M-Sport drivers. In his first year as a full-time driver with the British team it's a disappointing end to 2022. Part-time driver with M-Sport Dani Sordo was just 28 points behind Breen having completed just four events.
A much improved 2023 will be needed to suffice the boss in Cumbria. Breen was signed as a lead driver by Ford with the hopes that they would challenge Hyundai and Toyota for Championship glory. The first year of that plan has not gone as they would have liked but the goal must now shift to bedding in Breen and Fulton as a new pairing with the re-start date in Monte Carlo fast approaching.
