Ford announce works withdrawl

Ford of Europe have announced that they will withdraw their works backing from the World Rally Championship at the end of this season, bringing to an end the 15 year works association with M-Sport, the Cumbrian rally preparation specialists.

“Ford has a long and proud history in the WRC and this was not an easy decision. At this time, however we determined that it was better for the company and the Ford brand to reduce our commitment to the WRC and deploy our resources in other areas.” said Roelant de Waard, Ford of Europe's Vice President.

Speculation has been rife that Ford were about to pull their works presence from the WRC, having only made a last minute decision to enter this year's Championship. However this announcement has sent shock waves through the rallying world, much like when Subaru withdrew entirely in 2008, but de Waard is proud to have been associated with M-Sport, saying:

“We have great respect for M-Sport and Malcolm Wilson, who have run the Ford WRC team since 1997, and there is no organisation with more expertise and commitment to winning. Working together, we have reached a point where the Ford Fiesta has become the car of choice in rallying, and we want to see this continue in the future.”

Malcolm Wilson, who heads up Ford's assault on the WRC, said: “M-Sport is extremely proud of our history with Ford since 1997; 208 podium finishes, scoring points on 156 consecutive events and 52 wins from 225 starts in the WRC along with two world titles underlines the dedication and commitment of the whole team in Cumbria.”

The statistics mentioned by Wilson go in a big way towards Ford's current standings in the WRC record books, sitting second in the all-time rally wins list with 82, as well as joint-fourth in the all-time championship wins list with four.

M-Sport are planning to run a team in the WRC for next year, running a brace of Fiesta RS WRC's. Their driver line up as well as the number of rallies they plan on doing is still a mystery however. Jari-Matti Latvala, the team's current No. 1 driver, has recently announced he will drive for Volkswagen next season. However, 2003 World Champion Petter Solberg's fate is still unknown.

“Confirmation of our key championship programmes for 2013 is our first priority and a challenge that the team here is very much looking forward to. After that we can review all options and determine the right direction for the future,” Wilson concluded.

Even with the news breaking of Ford's departure as a works effort, the team plans on going out on a high, targeting as many stage wins and overall wins as they can, as well as developing the Fiesta RS WRC for next season's rallying.

“My intention is that we will continue to push to secure stage wins and overall results on the forthcoming events for Ford and to push forward with the development work that was started in March this year to improve and refine the Fiesta WRC even further, ready for the 2013 season.” Wilson added.