M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

Excellent news for the rally world ... even if I’m not sure it’s the best choice for Tanak himself. But well, on what he has shown last year and knowing Ogier succeeded in winning the title in 2018 in the second year of the regulation, it’s not an impossible dream.
And it gives some hype to the 2023 championship.

Losing Tanak would have reduced the possibilities and Clearly having a big fish in M-Sport team give a 3-way very interesting fight.
Let’s see now what M-Sport will have as line-up along him.

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Originally Posted by Danny0405

Excellent news for the rally world ... even if I’m not sure it’s the best choice for Tanak himself. But well, on what he has shown last year and knowing Ogier succeeded in winning the title in 2018 in the second year of the regulation, it’s not an impossible dream.
And it gives some hype to the 2023 championship.

Losing Tanak would have reduced the possibilities and Clearly having a big fish in M-Sport team give a 3-way very interesting fight.
Let’s see now what M-Sport will have as line-up along him.

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Lets just hope that M-Sport will figure out their reliability issues and wont skip PET due to the funding issues. Tanak wont tolerate it - PR success and opportunity might turn to disaster rather quickly if MSport would not hold their word of bargain.

But, one is sure - MS folks have had been in this situation before, with Ogier, they must know that they would need to rise their game.

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Originally Posted by AndersX

Lets just hope that M-Sport will figure out their reliability issues and wont skip PET due to the funding issues. Tanak wont tolerate it - PR success and opportunity might turn to disaster rather quickly if MSport would not hold their word of bargain.

But, one is sure - MS folks have had been in this situation before, with Ogier, they must know that they would need to rise their game.

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Main question mark and the thing that can ruin the season for Tänak in M-sport is reliability in my opinion also, but i hope that him joining brings the motivation and will to deal with theese little issues that hindered Fords all season.

About PET i dont really think it was as much about money as everyone thinks, i mean course money was involved, but if you think logically why would you need to spend money with some second tier drivers to who'm it does not matter if he has 50+km before rally or not. He still will be driving 5-6-7 times at best or end it in a ditch. Loeb got to test before every rally he entered, so i doubt Tänak will be without PET's.

Also i think now that Tänak joined the team as mentioned in the Dirtfish article and some other places also, Tänak coming to the team will open the wallet more from Ford to Wilson.

It has been mentioned that Ford has started already to fall behind from Hyundai and Toyota, but people are forgetting that Hyundai and Toyota applied the engine updates before Rally Estonia i think. Ford postphoned that because there were some question marks about the fuel used next season. https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/why-m...gine-upgrades/
That means in Monte probably or Sweden they will apply the new engine update. And also with Tänak knowledge i think the chassis and aero wont stay the same in terms of upgrades. Quote from dirtfish about Tänaks words
“And there is also Ford behind who is very interested to still prove that they are capable of doing well in rallying, so I would say together with Ford and M-Sport I see there is a chance to build something great again together.”

In my opinion that means when Tänak and Wilson say something needs to be upgraded on the car, then it probably will be done and wont stay behind budget wall.

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Originally Posted by Rallyest

About PET i dont really think it was as much about money as everyone thinks, i mean course money was involved, but if you think logically why would you need to spend money with some second tier drivers to who'm it does not matter if he has 50+km before rally or not. He still will be driving 5-6-7 times at best or end it in a ditch. Loeb got to test before every rally he entered, so i doubt Tänak will be without PET's.

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Breen did not get to test before Finland, a rally he finished 3rd at the year before. I do not rate Breen particularly high, but cleary he was MSports best shot for that rally and should have had a chance of podium.

If that is not worth spending money, even after actually hiring the driver (and not just him paying) then you have to wonder what is.

My phone died on Tuesday and I had to have it returned to factory settings. I didn't get it back till this morning.... and find I missed the big news !!

I dared to dream Tanak would come back but didn't really believe it. FANTASTIC !!

It's certainly good news that he will be back in 2023. Let's hope he'll have a better time of it than he did these last couple of years.

At the same time, let's be realistic about what we can expect. He's fast, sure. The car has shown flashes of pace. However, it looks fragile even in the hands of someone like Sebastien Loeb, who certainly seems to have a lighter touch than most.

The other manufacturers have clearly taken steps forward in terms of speed and reliability, while it's hard to say if the Puma is any better now than it was this time last year. Lessons will have been learned I'm sure, but still...

I don't want to get too carried away. I'm a fan of the driver and the team, and I'd be very happy to see both of them back on top, but I don't see it being easy for them. Ott is going to have to be patient, and M-Sport are going to have to start spending some serious money. Let's hope the cash they saved in 2022 will be used to good effect in 2023.

I don’t believe Tanak would have signed had he not been assured that the basics (PET, development budget, knowledge of the extent of Fords involvement etc) been assured. For sure he is not a guy to go there because he likes Malcolm Wilson, he is going there because they have assured him they have the funds and material to do a proper job.
It remains to be seen if it actually comes together, but this isn’t some old pals act.

It's going to be fascinating whatever happens and is exactly what we fans and the WRC needed... a 3-way fight for the top guys in different cars.

I'm looking forward to hearing the full details of Tanak's deal and how it all came about and will be funded. It's clearly a big financial outlay and I really hope it pays off for whoever's laid out the salary.

Could it be that Wilson managed to pull a deal with papa Greensmith?
As Tanak isn't RB guy, he can run with another livery(maybe same as Gus)?

Anyway Gus has a really good chance to benefit from Tanak being his teammate for full season(like Tanak and Evans gained experience from Ogier).

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Originally Posted by TypeR

Anyway Gus has a really good chance to benefit from Tanak being his teammate for full season(like Tanak and Evans gained experience from Ogier).

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To me it seems Gus knows how to be a professional rally driver, but he just lacks the talent of driving fast. Tänak's situation was the opposite, he had speed but had to learn important details of working and refining his driving style from Ogier.

Furthermore, Gus was in the team already in 2017 with Ogier, Tänak and Evans. If he needed those guys to "watch and learn", he could have already done it (also with Ogier 2018 and Evans 2018-2019)