M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[er88]

Neuville was at Hyundai already and the 2017 car was designed around him. (Some would say it still is and several other drivers have struggled with it over the years.)

Ogier had to adapt to the Fiesta from years at VW and developing their 2017 car. He got it to his liking but it was still an adaptable enough car for others to win rallies in it.

It's hard to say that the car was designed around Neuville. Ofcourse he had an advantage vs Ogier going into the Fiesta blind, but Thierry was the last Hyundai driver to test the i20 because he took a while to commit his future to the team in 2016. Abbring, Sordo and Paddon etc all had tests before Hyundai let Neuville drive it. It's not like they designed the car specifically for Neuville when he potentially could've moved away.

The i20 definitely seemed the fastest car in the early part of the season, Neuville just blew two comfortable leads in Monte and Sweden. The fiesta was very good and had a wide operating window, but it wasn't the best car out of the blocks imo.

[AnttiL]

The beginning of 2017 was weird in the sense that the Fiesta seemed to be inomplete (Ogier had hydraulix issues, Tänak had weird engine issues and Evans had engine failure in Mexico), but still Ogier won his only two rallies of the season on the first and sixth events of the year. I would say it was more about Ogier's skill to take it easy and control the pace and let others fail in front of him. This was especially the case in Portugal. Also I would say Toyota was still underdeveloped in early 2017.

[mknight]

In the first half of 2017 "everyone" was fast with Hyundai. Paddon was a bit down after Monte, but by Sardinia he totally had the speed, same with Sordo. Later they started their back-and-forth aero changes and others improved.

Anyway back to the very start....

There is no guarantee Puma will be comparable to Toyota and Hyundai at start of 2022. 06' Focus and 11' Fiesta were fastest, 17' was comparable but not fastest.
It is possible, maybe even likely, but not guaranteed.

Let's put it in different words:

2022 Toyota is being developed by same people as current Toyota, with Ogier, Evans, Rovanpera and Hanninen driving. Seemingly lots of funding.

2022 Hyundai is being developed by mostly different people than 2017 car, including Loriaux who was involved with 2022 Puma before jumping ship and Tanak and Neuville driving. Seemingly lots of funding.

2022 Puma is being developed by reduced stafff compared with 2017 car, with Matt Wilson and Fourmaux driving. Limited funding.

[AnttiL]

Also good to remember that the 2017 cars were mainly test driven by

Hyundai - Kevin Abbring
Ford - Eric Camilli
Toyota - Juho Hänninen (and Tommi Mäkinen)
Citroen - Kris Meeke

[EstWRC]

Camilli? yeah he did develop it but not mainly as far as i know. Tänaks father said in one interview back in the day that Ott did most of the km's with it.

Also im not sure about Abbring with Hyundai? Hänninen and Meeke definitely were the main ones.

[TypeR]

Why is ford hurting you so much? (mknight)

Ford won 2017 drivers and manus championship..
+ 18' WDC, can't really complain..

Endless budget doesn't always equal fast or reliable car..
Even after 4-5 years Hyundai has random cheap problems.

put Ogier or Tänak in Fiesta today and they will win stages/rallies with it..

[doubled1978]

It remains to be seen as well how reliable this hybrid system will be, and who makes best use of it, could have a big impact on results.
MSport/Ford have done very well at designing relatively benign cars at the start of new rule sets, which while the cars are under-developed (new) has helped them. The lack of budget has then obviously hindered the on going development of the car and they fall away from the pace. I’m not sure Ogier and Tanak would be winning rallies in today’s Fiesta, the other two cars have been extremely developed and are very fast, but we will never know now I guess.
Impossible to really predict what will happen this time, I’m sure we all hope the 3 cars are pretty equal and we get good competition.

[macebig]

With Ogier or Tanak at the wheel, the Fiesta would be a regular podium mainstay and you can take that to the bank. Drivers are the problem, not the car. It's 2016 all over again.

[Danny0405]

With Ogier or Tanak at the wheel, the Fiesta would be a regular podium mainstay and you can take that to the bank. Drivers are the problem, not the car. It's 2016 all over again.

Not really comparable with 2016 for me.
Yes, Camilli’s season was a mess and the overall was disappointing.

But Ostberg did quite a good first half of season, he would have been second at the WDC ranking after Sardinia without an engine failure (especially interesting if we remember he didn’t have good roads position because of his consistency).
And Tanak was close to the win in Poland (yes, helped by D-Mack tyres but, on the other hand, these same tyres were a disadvantage on most of the rallies).
The second half was more complicated except Tanak in Wales but mostly because Ford put its means on the new car.

Here, the 2021 season is much more difficult so far and they have only made one podium on their last 20 rallyes (since Finland 2019) whereas they had a driver like Lappi last year (3 podiums even with the average Citroen in 2019).

[AnttiL]

put Ogier or Tänak in Fiesta today and they will win stages/rallies with it..

I don't believe this. They could get lucky podiums with problems from others, but that's all.

Fiesta fell of the wagon of development in the summer of 2018 when the big rear aeros started appearing. In the end they had to revert one homologation and it appears they never got the suspension working together with the bigger aero, like Hyundai and Toyota managed. And from 2019 onwards the development has been sparse compared to what they did with Ogier in the team.