Richards ready to hire British driver

Richards was the team principal responsible for delivering both of Britain's World Rally Champions - Colin McRae in 1995 and Richard Burns in 2001 - and he says he wants to achieve the same again.

"Yes, I am willing to a take punt on somebody," said Richards. "At the moment, it's difficult to see who it might be. We took a risk with Colin [McRae].

"We picked him up when he was pretty much starting out and we took him all the way to being world champion. If I could see the same in another driver, that's what we're trying to achieve."

SWRT managing director Richard Taylor confirmed in Greece last week that the team are in discussions with current British champion Guy Wilks about driving an Impreza WRC2008 later this year.

This would, however, be a deal with a commercial angle to it in a similar way to Wilks' outing last year, when he took an Impreza WRC to sixth in last November's event.