M-Sport Ford World Rally Teams

[Andre Oliveira]

Rumours about Ott testing the Puma today.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Fourmaux:
On the way to the @TropheeAndros ! While waiting to tell you more about 2023, I will take part in the famous ice racing competition this winter. Team DRP's 500hp electric car, 4 directional wheels... Lots of fun !

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Muddy for the test at Greystoke today...

[lmmjvss]

Ah great. Now ford dont want hybrids and electrics in motorsport.
https://www.motorsport.com/general/n...port/10371372/
(Sep-22)

[the sniper]

Ah great. Now ford dont want hybrids and electrics in motorsport.
https://www.motorsport.com/general/n...port/10371372/
(Sep-22)

To be fair, this speaks positively of the Puma and really is probably more relevant to NASCAR and Aussie Supercars.

[TypeR]

Impressive silence

[Fast Eddie WRC]

A bit more from the Millener interview:

"Honestly, I don't know who we'll have [driving for us in 2023], but hopefully we can keep all of our current drivers and Ott, if that's possible. No one has signed anything yet."


"There is interest (in Tanak), of course, but the rumors on the internet are much stronger than the reality. It is now clear that he is a free agent and that Hyundai is no longer an option for him. It seems that Toyota has a lineup that they are happy with, but it could be that he takes some time off."

"Obviously we'll talk to him and see what's possible, but right now it's very hard to envision a way to do anything."

Asked if M-Sport would consider a partial campaign for Tanak , he added: "It could be a possibility, although there would have to be an investment from M-Sport which is not going to be small."

"We have limited the cars we bring to Japan for financial reasons, and keeping the business going is our priority. There are a lot of people working at this company, so you don't want to put that at risk."

[mknight]

A bit more from the Millener interview:

"Honestly, I don't know who we'll have [driving for us in 2023], but hopefully we can keep all of our current drivers and Ott, if that's possible. No one has signed anything yet."


"There is interest (in Tanak), of course, but the rumors on the internet are much stronger than the reality. It is now clear that he is a free agent and that Hyundai is no longer an option for him. It seems that Toyota has a lineup that they are happy with, but it could be that he takes some time off."

"Obviously we'll talk to him and see what's possible, but right now it's very hard to envision a way to do anything."

Asked if M-Sport would consider a partial campaign for Tanak , he added: "It could be a possibility, although there would have to be an investment from M-Sport which is not going to be small."

"We have limited the cars we bring to Japan for financial reasons, and keeping the business going is our priority. There are a lot of people working at this company, so you don't want to put that at risk."

Who is their "current drivers"? I kind of only see Greensmith.

Fourmaux seems to be kicked out of Rally1. Loubet is supposedly paying himself and RedBull is paying for Loeb.


With regards to "investement" vs "not risking jobs". Everyone understands that saving money on investment only works as a short term fix. Longer term without investment the company will go down for sure. 2020-2021 it totally looked like that.
Then they (and/or Ford) made investment in new Puma and one driver capable of podiums (Breen) and managed to get Loeb for a few starts. Looked great for a few rallies and convinced Loubet as well as Huttunen to use money at MSport. (People like Serendis and Bertelli would likely use money there anyway).

But lately it looks not as great again, investing in Breen ultimately failed and Huttunens example of using money only to have technical issues whole rally as well as the constant technical issues for others is bad for business. Potential clients such as Solberg might rather opt to go to WRC2 (seems to be the case for Solberg) or rent that 4th Toyota.

-------------------

With regards to Tanak I 100% expect him to test it. The only reason not to try would be if he was 100% sure that he doesn't want any rallies in 2023.

[becher]

Ah great. Now ford dont want hybrids and electrics in motorsport.
https://www.motorsport.com/general/n...port/10371372/
(Sep-22)

Without a doubt the best part of the interview: "I know we have it with our Puma hybrid in [World Rally Championship] and it’s actually working quite well there and we have learnt a lot from that that we can transfer to our road cars..."

Learnt a lot from an independent engineering company using a spec component from a third party. haha

[Kenneth]

You can't learn by analyzing what someone else done? Also won't there be option to use own hybrid unit since 2025?