M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[Sulland]

Yes Fourmeaux is doing great considering his lack of experience. But don't rush him too fast. He needs to learn the rallies and be a constant contender in WRC2 before moving up. He did a great job in Monte Carlo (his first Monte !) but ther is still a long road to go.

Agreed but he need a couple of tests, to get the WRCar under his skin. He has a good brain, and need to start prosessing.
He has put his medical studies on halt to focus fully on rally. So maybe this driver works a bit different than most others.

[tommeke_B]

Yes Fourmeaux is doing great considering his lack of experience. But don't rush him too fast. He needs to learn the rallies and be a constant contender in WRC2 before moving up. He did a great job in Monte Carlo (his first Monte !) but ther is still a long road to go.

Actually his third Monte... But indeed, great event from him and it looks like he has more to show. Let's just hope they don't skip steps like they did with Camilli.

[Mirek]

Guys, don't forget that Gus won Monte Carlo in WRC2...

[Sulland]

Gus needs coaching both mental and driving. It is not fare to expect the same from him as other team leaders.

[AnttiL]

Gus winning the RC2 class in Monte 2019 was his finest drive, but the entry list that year wasn’t that special. No works Skodas or ex-WRC drivers. Rovanperä, Veiby, Ciamin, Bonato, Sarrazin, Katsuta...and Fourmaux.

[RS]

This situation is frustrating for all us fans, especially when there are only two other manufacturers in the WRC class but there is little point in attacking Gus or even M-Sport (which I have probably been guilty of too). Thinking things through there is no logical reason why M-Sport should or would want to spend too much of their own money other than for Malcolm’s personal enjoyment or vanity, when:

- The project is not paid for by a manufacturer and they have no incentive to give the best performance to retain that backing

- As far as i’m aware there are no cash prizes for manufacturers in WRC (as there are in F1 for example)

- There is no real market for selling or renting these vehicles to privateers

- There seems to be very little in the way of external sponsorship coming into WRC other than from subsidiaries or partners of manufacturers.

Fingers crossed things change for the hybrid era. Perhaps Ford can be persuaded to open their wallet if they can get some marketing mileage out of the hybrid technology or maybe Mikelssen can get Red Bull to offer some backing to the team in the same way they did to get Ogier in a Fiesta when VW pulled out.

[AnttiL]

Why M-Sport wants to stay in WRC:
- They can get money in from paydrivers
- They want to stay relevant in the sport in order to sell lower class cars.
- Maybe the 2022 cars will be more privateer-friendly?

[mknight]

- As far as i’m aware there are no cash prizes for manufacturers in WRC (as there are in F1 for example)

This is actuall a real problem imo, in F1 there is money for each manu point earned. Surely the promoter sells TV "product" to TV providers, sells Allive etc. I get that it's likely not huge sums but how is that in any way channeled back to teams/drivers?

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Anyway back to MSport

- The project is not paid for by a manufacturer and they have no incentive to give the best performance to retain that backing

I am not so sure about this. In one way or another Ford does "give" them money/support. Will this continue endlessly if they are not only after the first 3 cars from each of the other manus but even after "extra drivers" (Katsuta, Loubet..)

Why M-Sport wants to stay in WRC:
- They can get money in from paydrivers

Here is the main danger imo. If those drivers that have money and ambition see that they will be at a significant performance disadvantage with MSport they will go elsewhere. At least those that have a realistic ambition of making it towards the top.
So you get Veiby, Loubet and in a way also Solberg going to Hyundai rather than MSport which would have been the typical go-to just 2-3 years ago. If they can't attract those they end up with only guys like Bertelli.

For this specific reason they should have at minimum 1 "Top" driver performance-wise to at least on occasions show what the car can do. IMO it should be somewhat reliable driver (in terms of performance), not necessarily finishing rallies.

This year Suninen kind of has that role. So far he has done terrible, but it's only one rally. My issue is that he is not really considered reliable (and neither is Lappi), meaning considered as a proven driver that is regularly fast over the season. Meeke, Paddon, Mikkelsen, Østberg, (and Latvala) fit that much better. But Meeke, Paddon and similar drivers who have won rallies also don't want to pay a lot of money just to "promote" MSport product.

So we get to the dilemma, keep on "risking" with "unreliable"/young drivers or use a bit more money for some regularly fast one? So far MSport almost always goes for the cheaper and risky option. Worked in 2019 (Evans had real pace in Corsica and GB and got "sold" to Toyota, getting money to MSport), did not work at all in 2020 (only a tiny glimpse at Monza).

[SubaruNorway]

Why M-Sport wants to stay in WRC:
- They can get money in from paydrivers
- They want to stay relevant in the sport in order to sell lower class cars.
- Maybe the 2022 cars will be more privateer-friendly?

Unless there are special rules in the WRC you need at least one trained mechanic to work on the high voltage system, not a huge deal but needs to be done i guess

[AnttiL]

Here is the main danger imo. If those drivers that have money and ambition see that they will be at a significant performance disadvantage with MSport they will go elsewhere. At least those that have a realistic ambition of making it towards the top.
So you get Veiby, Loubet and in a way also Solberg going to Hyundai rather than MSport which would have been the typical go-to just 2-3 years ago. If they can't attract those they end up with only guys like Bertelli.

Just for the record, Bertelli owns his car and has his own team.

But why people are going to Hyundai, I can only think of two things: 1) the performance of Fiesta WRC and 2) the performance of Fiesta Rally2 (although Hyundai R5 hasn't been much better)