M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

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Originally Posted by Sulland

I am still amazed Malcolm did not pick up Oliver Solberg while he had the chance.

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This actually shocked me at the time, but Malcolm was caught up in other interests unfortunately..........

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Originally Posted by djip

Malcolm always plays the long game : signing long term deal very early on to (almost) unknown drivers. sometime it works, sometimes not ...
Solberg already had a lot of hype way befoer he got his drivers licence - so did Rovanpera back then.

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Agree.
Malcolm is about maximizing profit. Pick a young/unknown driver that drives for free or has funding and try to raise him to get paid (and get %).

As you mentioned Solberg or Rovanpera had so much hype they didn't need to go for terms like that.

Could also be that M-Sport didn't have a budget available for young talents after breaking the bank with Ogier (and investing heavily in Tänak and Evans). Or maybe both Rovanperä and Solberg decided to go for more competitive teams.

Mikkelsen has just sold his house in Norway, so should have a few Million to buy a drive.

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Originally Posted by Paul Hudson

Mikkelsen has just sold his house in Norway, so should have a few Million to buy a drive.

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That would be rather stupid thing to do.

From the drivers that are left I think the only one who could fight for the driver's championship would be Mikkelsen. If he clicks with the car I think he has the speed on all rallies to fight at the top and challenge, has enough experience and is still hungry. No one else out of the available drivers ticks all the boxes in my opinion. So if you want to go for the drivers title a good lineup could be Mikkelsen-Fourmaux-Greensmith, assuming Greensmith continues to bring budget.

We only have 3 Teams but not enough fast drivers for those 3. :)

Luckily we don´t have 5-6 different teams ;)

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Originally Posted by seb_sh

From the drivers that are left I think the only one who could fight for the driver's championship would be Mikkelsen. If he clicks with the car I think he has the speed on all rallies to fight at the top and challenge, has enough experience and is still hungry. No one else out of the available drivers ticks all the boxes in my opinion. So if you want to go for the drivers title a good lineup could be Mikkelsen-Fourmaux-Greensmith, assuming Greensmith continues to bring budget.

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No.

He wasn't fast enough to bring the fight to ogier when he was in the VW, and he wasn't fast enough to bring the fight to neuville when he was in the Hyundai.

He could be fast enough to score a freak win when he has a good starting position though.

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Originally Posted by Andre Oliveira

FFSA and Red Bull behind Fourmaux means a lot too.

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I doubt the Red Bull personal sponsorship is particularly big in money terms; he's hardly one of their major stars (well not yet). A coveted RB helmet and other support, rather than budget.

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Originally Posted by AndyRAC

I doubt the Red Bull personal sponsorship is particularly big in money terms; he's hardly one of their major stars (well not yet). A coveted RB helmet and other support, rather than budget.

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I could imagine it's a little bit more than most of the 'Red Bull Athletes', just because of how prominent it is compared to all those who seem to only have the helmet and free drinks supply deal, but yeah, probably not much more. Maybe Red Bull France have just allocated a greater share of their budget towards him, but it's still only a domestic Red Bull France deal? It'd be interesting to know the terms of how these Red Bull deals work. Elfyn Evans has been on one for years, even when he was doing BRC in 2016 in the Dmack car and presumably not making much money out of it, but he still only wore a Red Bull Cap to show his association.