M-Sport team principal is wary of potential harm caused by putting rally cars into racing environments
Photography by M-Sport, Red Bull & Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry & David Evans
With talks ongoing about bringing the World Rally Championship to the Nürburgring Nordschleife, potentially as early as 2027, M-Sport team principal Richard Millener has just one warning.
“It’s a hugely iconic place, great name,” Millener told DirtFish. “[But] please don’t put the cars on Nordschleife, because they’ll look rubbish.”
That might seem like a controversial statement – given the Nordschleife’s fame and prestige, why not put the world’s best rally cars on such an iconic, and globally-recognized, circuit?
Because, in Millener’s view, rally cars on race tracks don’t create an entertaining spectacle.
“We saw it in Spa, we’ve seen it in other venues we’ve gone to. It’s nice, it’s a nice story, but actually it’s boring,” he reasoned.
“The roads are too wide, the top speed’s 180-190 kilometers an hour. And by the time you go to an in-car and you’re watching Thierry [Neuville] go flat out through Eau Rouge with no issues whatsoever, it’s like… I think it did us a bit of harm.”
Race circuits' wide expanses of Tarmac do not necessarily provide the most striking WRC images, reckons Millener
Millener was referencing Spa-Francorchamps, the venue for Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix, which featured as part of the Ypres Rally in the first of its two years on the WRC calendar in 2021. The event didn’t go to Spa the following year.
Italian GP venue Monza has also hosted two rounds of the WRC (2020-21), while the final edition of Rally GB visited Oulton Park back in 2019, too.
“I would much rather use the venue to attract all of the car fans that we have at the venue to come and see the WRC and have the service park in the middle of Nordschleife,” the Englishman added.
“But let’s try and keep the Nordschleife open so people are going there and driving the track and just there already. Let’s not get in the way and shut it down.”
DirtFish understands ADAC, German motorsport’s ASN, is considering pairing a potential WRC event with a round of the DTM. Millener would support that idea, or hosting the two series on back-to-back weekends.
Nürburgring Nordschleife is more commonly associated with GT racing, including its annual 24-hour race
“Whether the DTM round is earlier in the week or the weekend before and you make a full week out of it, full carnival week or whatever, people will go to Nordschleife and go, ‘well, we could go for the week and we could watch DTM, then Monday, Tuesday we could go on the track, and then Wednesday we could go out for shakedown’ or whatever, and make it into a full week. But I think I would utilize the environment you’ve already got there and try to go and take it over.
“I’ve never been to Nordschleife actually, but put the service park somewhere in amongst that so that you can keep both things going.”
Eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier, who lives in Germany, heard about the Nordschleife possibility for the first time at last weekend’s Central European Rally. But the concept gets the Toyota driver’s vote.
“I mean, obviously, this area is also very famous for motorsport in general,” Ogier told DirtFish. “So yeah, if it goes around there, I’m pretty sure the possibility to make something good is existing.”
DirtFish has contacted ADAC for comment.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Nurburgring, Richard Millener, Spa-Francorchamps, WRC
Publish Date October 25, 2025 DirtFish
Up Next