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MOTORSPORT: Ford steps back from World Rally Championship
The Blue Oval's withdrawal of works support is a bigger blow to the WRC than BMW's similar decision recently for MINIEuropean decision came as new V8 Supercar tested in Sydney
On the day Ford Australia’s factory team stepped up its testing of the first “Car of the Future” Falcon for next year’s V8 Supercar Championship, Ford of Europe pulled the plug on its works participation in the World Rally Championship.
As BMW did last week in withdrawing factory financial support for its Mini in the WRC, Ford will continue to assist customer entries through a specialist British rally company. In Ford’s case that is M-Sport; in BMW/Mini’s it is Prodrive – which in Australia owns Ford Performance Racing.
FPR yesterday tested its “Car of the Future” Falcon at Sydney Motorsport Park after its recent initial run at Victoria’s Winton circuit.
Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison each did half a day in the Falcon on the Sydney circuit previously known as Eastern Creek and which the team said was a much better venue for testing because of its fast and flowing nature, unlike the tighter Winton track.
But, with Falcon road car sales flagging, Ford’s financial support for V8 Supercar racing is expected to be scaled out in the next year or two, leaving FPR to survive on sponsorship. Long-time Ford teams Stone Brothers and Dick Johnson Racing had already been told there was no factory funding for them next year.
Stones opted to link with Erebus Racing to field AMG Mercedes-Benz E63s and there are indications that DJR may run Mazda6 bodywork, perhaps over a generic V8 Supercar engine if its Ford motors cannot be rebadged Mazda.
The change of direction by the car manufacturers on the WRC has come in response to the European economic crisis. Ford’s move is a much bigger blow to the WRC than that of BMW-MINI. The Blue Oval has long been the main rival in world rallying to dominant manufacturer Citroen, whose main opponent from next year will be Volkswagen – with Hyundai returning to the WRC in a partial campaign next year.
The series has had a multitude of other problems – primarily the collapse of its former promoter early this year and the decision by nine-time world champion Sebastian Loeb to contest only selected rounds next year.
At least one of the Ford factory drivers, Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, is now likely to take up an offer to join VW as teammate to French sensation Sebastien Ogier. The future of the other Ford factory star, colourful Norwegian former world champion Petter Solberg (pictured, behind the wheel of the Fiesta RS), is clouded.
BMW’s decision on the MINI in rallying has left Australia’s top rally driver Chris Atkinson’s career at another crossroads. Atkinson, a member of Subaru’s successful WRC team until it was folded in late 2008, only recently joined the works-backed, Portuguese-owned, Italian-run MINI team and immediately impressed.
On the WRC upside, Red Bull Media House and the Sportsman Media Group have been appointed promoters of next year’s series, which includes Rally Australia at NSW’s Coffs Harbour on September 12-15.
Ford of Europe vice-president of marketing, sales and service Roelant de Waard announced the Blue Oval’s works withdrawal overnight.
“Ford has a long and proud history in the WRC and this was not an easy decision,” he said. “At this time, however, we determined that it was better for the company and the Ford brand to reduce our commitment to the WRC and deploy our resources in other areas.”
M-Sport has run Ford’s WRC factory squad since 1997 and has scored 52 wins from 225 rallies, delivered manufacturers’ titles in 2006 and ’07, notched 208 podium finishes and scored points on 156 consecutive events. M-Sport principal Malcolm Wilson has pledged to continue developing the Fiesta WRC for next year.
“We will also continue to work closely with our colleagues at Ford Racing towards the launch of the Fiesta R5 for March 2013 and the improvements that we are working on for the R2 car which will continue to form the basis of a series of national and regional young driver programmes in the future [including in Australia],” Wilson said.
“We understand that tough decisions have had to be made to safeguard Ford jobs. We accept the commercial reality of the situation and look forward to continuing our strong technical partnership into the future.”
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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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