Peugeot is biggest threat, says Wilson

Wilson's comments fly in the face of the fact that his number one driver Colin McRae has already said that he believed Richard Burns, who took the drivers' title with Subaru last year, would struggle in 2002 as he switches to the Peugeot team.

However, with 2000 world champion Marcus Gronholm partnering Burns and both Harri Rovanpera and Gilles Panizzi signed up as third drivers, Wilson feels sure the threat of the French outfit is looming larger than ever.

"We class Peugeot as our biggest threat and I think they class us as their biggest threat," said Wilson at the AUTOSPORT International show. "We've finished as bridesmaid to them for the last two years so we need to try to address that this year.

"The third driver will be crucial because if you have a retirement then he is there to pick up the points. From that point of view Peugeot are in a stronger position than we are because they've got two first class number one equal drivers [Burns and Gronholm], but then they can also switch their third driver with a Tarmac expert and a gravel expert [Rovanpera and Panizzi]."

Despite the threat however, Wilson is still confident that his M-Sport-run team will be on the pace. He also expects the stability of its driver line up, with McRae and Carlos Sainz staying on, as well as the addition of rising star Markko Martin, to be an advantage.

"We certainly feel that we've got a very good chance," he added. "I think if you look at our early problems last year, we really want to try and get some points on the board early on. The good thing is that we've got stability with [co-driver] Nicky [Grist] and Colin having lived with the car for three years now."

The 2002 season kicks off with the Monte Carlo Rally on Friday.