[WRC] News & Rumours (part V) 2017

[Archie Gillaine]

Ford will return when they feel it's worth doing so.
At the moment its almost a win/win for them. They put very little in, but can bask in the glory of any success.
Who apart from a dedicated follower of the sport actually knows Ford AREN'T in the WRC??

[Arwel Davies]

Ford will return when they feel it's worth doing so.
At the moment its almost a win/win for them. They put very little in, but can bask in the glory of any success.
Who apart from a dedicated follower of the sport actually knows Ford AREN'T in the WRC??

This is the exact reason why there is no sign of them returning. From a business viewpoint why would they invest x amount more money when they are claiming rally victories as their own right now, we've all seen the Ford Performance tweets on Twitter. Just because there is no big Ford logo on the cars, its clearly a Fiesta and that is always going to be associated with Ford rather than M-sport. To a casual fan looking in, it would appear that Ford are competing in the WRC and winning. I feel that without the full Ford return, I can see M-sport looking at other manufactures in a few years. Prodrive were associated with Subaru for years and ran the ill fated Mini WRC team so it has been done and probably will be done again at some point.Will we see Ford as a full manufacturer? I would say its doubtful.

[Lundefaret]

In my opinion Ford is getting a lot of undeserved flack.

Ford is massively involved in M Sport with a factory spec Rally Cross program, and have been very lojal to M Sport since the factory days. And its not like they dont supply time/effort/money to M Sports rally program.

M Sport (Malcolm Wilson) decided to continue in the WRC whit out full factory backing, and this was a decision he made as part of a very successful business plan, to both sell R5 and R2 (and other) rally cars, and also use it as a HALO project to advertise M Sports engineering capabilities to other motorsport- and non-motorsport clients.

Malcolm Wilson also took a calculated decision to employ Ogier, again with out factory support, and also said that this is a "once in a life time" opportunity. So he didn´t do that deal with the expectation that Ogier would stay on/Ford would come in with full factory backing, all though he probably hoped this would trigger that effect.

If Ford chooses to back M Sport or not, that is off course the question, but I dont see how Ford should suffer any flack for "riding on the back" of M Sport, Ford are in large the reason for M Sport´s existence.

And seeing it from an economical point of view, M Sports economics are much healthier after Fords pull out than before, because they are not that dependant on one client (Ford), or one market (Motorsport).
The same has actually happened to Prodive after Subaru. They are thriving in engineering, composits manufacture, and other things, on top of that they run several successfull motorsport campaigns, and a very good marketing capaign for Subaru.

So all is not bad - even if Ford decides against going full tilt into the WRC.

[Simmi]

I guess fundamentally when Ford left they could have also made life really hard for Malcolm. But didn't. I'd assume if they don't bless the programme all these cars can't get properly homologated?

[RAS007]

....but I dont see how Ford should suffer any flack for "riding on the back" of M Sport, Ford are in large the reason for M Sport´s existence.

This^^^. Malcolm's relationship with Ford goes back to when he was a driver, and Malcolm Wilson Motorsport was a customer preparation outfit. Anyone saying Ford is riding on the back of M-Sport needs a history lesson.

[Rally Power]

So all is not bad - even if Ford decides against going full tilt into the WRC.

Ok, for sure it’s better to have MSport linked with Ford in a limited tech and logistic deal than not having MSport at all, but any rally fan must feel sad to see Ford throwing buckets of money on their LM/WEC 2nd level effort or on the gymkhana guy WRX team, instead of honoring their WRC heritage in a active way.

[racerx1979]

And seeing it from an economical point of view, M Sports economics are much healthier after Fords pull out than before, because they are not that dependant on one client (Ford), or one market (Motorsport).
The same has actually happened to Prodive after Subaru. They are thriving in engineering, composits manufacture, and other things, on top of that they run several successfull motorsport campaigns, and a very good marketing capaign for Subaru.

So all is not bad - even if Ford decides against going full tilt into the WRC.

Prodrive doing great. They are building VW's for the Rally Championship in China, folding bicycles.. you name it.

http://www.prodrive.com/news

The VW Golf SCRC is a great looking car. Simple.. http://www.prodrive.com/rally

[janvanvurpa]

Isn't that what the "loose time" is for?!?

You could read a good book...that's what i do.

[wrc2017]

Amen

Here you go:

Ford should return to the WRC because all of us Brits would be so happy to finally have them back. We can also keep Ogier and go back to the good old days so we can all keep on reporting biased media. Go Brits!!! Meeke is the best and Wilson is a god.

-David Evans, Colin Clark and insert other British Journo name here.

[stefanvv]

"In fact, in the words of one of my colleagues on the last WRC round in Germany, Ford is worse than a charlatan. He described it as a parasite, feeding off M-Sport's success.

"It's utterly ironic that Ford's staunchest support still comes from the man who suffers the most from Dearborn's intransigence. Don't believe me? Watch the post-event press conference at Rally Germany and you'll see [Wilson] wince as Ogier delivers another invitation to Ford to come to the party."

Oh yeah, what can I say. Better - nothing.