Quote Originally Posted by macebig View Post
I can't understand how some of you guys are fixated with "factory team". Does it really matter? Was Ralliart or Prodrive a "factory team"? No, they were backed by a car company to run a rally program. Hell, even the TTE was pretty much Ove Anders son's pet project till the mid 90s. What is really significant is that Ford was and is still backing M Sport to run a World Rally program. If the team is not named "Ford World Rally Team" or "Ford Performance " is secondary.
No, Ralliart and Prodrive were not factory teams. But they were 'manufactuer' teams.

M-Sport get technical support - a grey area to what that amounts to - but not enough funds from Ford to officially call it a Manufacturer entry.

Citroen and Hyundai are factory teams. Their motorsport divisions are owned by the car manufacturer. Toyota is a manufacturer team with the car manufactuer outsourcing and funding the programme.