M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Message from Malcolm: If you break it, you fix it...

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/m-spo...-and-fourmaux/

[mknight]

Message from Malcolm: If you break it, you fix it...

https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/m-spo...-and-fourmaux/

Well when they write that Loeb went for helicopter safari. It's quite likely he paid for it himself and even possible he piloted the heli as well.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Loeb did his best...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1540699974643613696

[Sulland]

Still mean MSport should give Mikkelsen a go on a gravel event. Would give them some good answers both on the car, and the drivers.
Feel the car has great pace, but the drivers are far off top level, apart from Loeb.

[mknight]

MSport business operation won't pay for Mikkelsen.

It might be that Ford leadership loses patience though and puts money for Tanak or Neuville who are now "cheap" and eager to change.

[focus206]

I'd love to see both Neuville and Tanak (I know, impossible) away from Hyundai as they deserve better. But I'm afraid that even if they'd join M-Sport, Kalle and Toyota are too far ahead anyway, it would only be a relatively slight improvement for them.

[WRC1]

I'd love to see both Neuville and Tanak (I know, impossible) away from Hyundai as they deserve better. But I'm afraid that even if they'd join M-Sport, Kalle and Toyota are too far ahead anyway, it would only be a relatively slight improvement for them.

compared to what they have now!!! Tanak and/or Neuville would be an ENOURMOS improvement compare to theire totally useless drivers they have now (apart from Loeb..)

[focus206]

compared to what they have now!!! Tanak and/or Neuville would be an ENOURMOS improvement compare to theire totally useless drivers they have now (apart from Loeb..)

No no, I mean: if Tanak and/or Neuville join M-Sport it would be a slight improvement for Tanak and/or Neuville compared to Hyundai. Because Toyota and Kalle are still on a different planet.
Agree that it would be an enormous improvement for M-Sport.

[Danny0405]

Yeah, issue is still the same for Tanak and Neuville; is the Puma better enough to justify a pay cut and can it be enough to play a championship?
All the more if we take into account that, in the best case scenario, they could only be there next year; and we know M-Sport has a lot of issue to be keep the pace of development.

For the moment, even if I made a joke on another topic about Loeb and other M-Sport, I’m not sure the M-Sport is that good. More reliable than the Hyundai for sure (but not clearly not at Toyota’s level when we take a look at the issues they had) and probably equal in terms of pure speed.
But without evolution, it will be hard to keep Toyota’s pace.
Even if I’m not a huge fan of their line-up drivers, I also think that their mistakes in some of their favorite events may sound they are over-driving to keep up with Toyota.

And on the other hand, if I was Latvala, I would never hire Tanak or Neuville in the current situation, all the more with Toyota already having the knowledge of the one-real manufacturer situation in WEC (and all the drawbacks). It’s better to have a controlled competition than no competition at all (else, the promoter could try some trick rules to tie the game) + it’s a risk for the relationship with Kalle who is the potential next big thing.

[MentalParadox]

Joining M-Sport would only make sense for Ott and Thierry THIS year. Next year might already be too late. Remember the previous cycle? M-Sport tends to nail regulation changes, but after 1-2 years the big budget teams inevitably overtake them. M-Sport was really good with Ogier in 2017-2018, but from 2019 onwards that pace was gone (Ogier timed his departure well). I'm afraid it's already over for M-Sport. The advantage they have in 2022 is smaller than many expected it would be, and they are already not the fastest car anymore - clearly Toyota is. What M-Sport need to be able to compete long-term beyond the first year of every cycle, is FULL support from Ford. Bring back Ford World Rally Team.