Quote Originally Posted by T16 View Post
What experience and changes do you think Ford performance will bring to M-Sport? To be honest, I would maybe think they can possibly do something with the engine, but I can't see how they can bring technical assistance to the rest of the car. M-Sport are doing an incredible job and they have basically funded the Fiesta development through the sales of customer cars.

The way I see it, is that they are the experts, not ford performance.

Like I said, possibly the engine (as in Ford can blow as many up as they want testing and developing), but M-Sport shouldn't be underestimated, Eddie, they are the ones with the knowledge in this situation.

Ford will probably just help from a budget point of view and make it 'look' like they are responsible for some additional development, whereas it's probably their cash, not their technical input.

Just my opinion, but I can't see how they could just come into the WRC blind and 'bring' all this new technology. And don't forget, Ford trusted M-Sport to run the whole show when they were an official manufacturer...
Ford Performance have a lot of research facilities a their disposal such as windtunnels and computer simulations, currently mostly used for track car engineering (Ford GT WEC). I'm pretty sure the M-Sport boys know what they can make good use of and what is irrelevant to developping a rally car. They currently have the best of both worlds. But as all team managers have alredy stated, progress will not be dramatic. Everyone but Citroen already has a strong package and is close to what the regulations allow. Each team is basically just looking to eliminate their respective weeknesses.