The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team (formerly M-Sport World Rally Team, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team and Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team) is the privately run World Rally Championship team of M-Sport, the firm run by Malcolm Wilson that was previously responsible for the operation of the former Ford World Rally Team.

History

2006 season

Stobart debuted at the 2006 season opener

Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially ''Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo'') is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast ...

with drivers Matthew Wilson and Pieter Tsjoen. Wilson went on to compete all the 16 rounds for the team. Other Stobart entrants during the season were

Luís Pérez Companc Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

in eight rallies,

Kosti Katajamäki Kosti Katajamäki (born 26 February 1977) is a rally driver from Finland. Career He made his rallying debut in 1997 in a Ford Escort RS2000. He won the Group N class of the Finnish Rally Championship in 2001 and the Group A class in 2005. His f ...

in five,

Jari-Matti Latvala Jari-Matti Latvala (born 3 April 1985) is a Finnish rally driver who has competed in the World Rally Championship (WRC). His co-driver for most of his career was Miikka Anttila, who co-drove for Latvala between the 2003 Rallye Deutschland and 2019 ...

in four, Juan Pablo Raies at the Cyprus Rally and Andreas Mikkelsen at the Wales Rally GB. The team's best results were Latvala's fourth place at the Wales Rally GB and Katajamäki's fifth at the Rally of Turkey and sixth at the Swedish Rally. With 44 points the team placed fifth overall in the manufacturers' world championship, behind OMV Peugeot Norway and ahead of Red Bull Škoda.

2007 season

Jari-Matti Latvala-2007 Wales Rally GB 001

In the 2007 season, Latvala and Wilson were joined by Henning Solberg and the three competed in all 16 rounds. Latvala and Solberg were nominated to collect manufacturers' championship points. Mikkelsen and Gareth Jones also drove for Stobart, in three and five events, respectively. The team achieved its best points total at the

Rally Norway Rally Norway is the Norwegian rally which has been part of the WRC calendar in 2007 and 2009. This rally and Rally Sweden are the only two rallies part of the WRC calendar which are mainly held on snow, with the Monte Carlo Rally also featuring s ...

, when Solberg took Stobart's first podium place by finishing third and Latvala finished fifth. Solberg later placed third at the Rally Japan and Latvala in the next rally in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, whilst Wilson finished a season best fourth in Japan. Stobart fought with the

Subaru World Rally Team The Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) was Subaru's World Rally Championship (WRC) team. It used a distinctive blue with yellow colour scheme that is a throwback to the sponsorship deal with State Express 555, a BAT cigarette brand popular in Asia. ...

for third place in the manufacturers' championship all year long, but Latvala's technical problems at the season-ending

2007 Wales Rally GB The 2007 Wales Rally GB (formally known as 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain) was the 16th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. The race was held over three days between 30 November and 2 December 2007. Report Sébastien Loeb became world ...

meant that the team had to settle with fourth place and 81 points. The team scored points in every event, and Latvala also led three rallies during the season;

Rally d'Italia Sardegna The Rally Italia Sardegna (until 2010 Rally d'Italia Sardegna) is a rally competition in Sardinia, Italy, which has been a round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) schedule and also the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). Characteristics ...

, Rally Finland and Rally Japan.

2008 season

For the 2008 season, Latvala was promoted to the

BP Ford World Rally Team The Ford World Rally Team, also known as the ''Ford Motor Co. Team'' prior to 2005, is Ford Motor Company's full factory World Rally Championship team. In its current form, it has been a competitor since the 1997 season, when Ford Motor Compa ...

and replaced in the Stobart team by

Gigi Galli Gianluigi Galli (born 13 January 1973), better known as Gigi Galli, is an Italian rally driver, best known for his spectacular driving style. He comes from, and lives in Livigno, Italy. Career Galli debuted in the World Rally Championship at the ...

. Wilson and Solberg continued with the team and along with Galli are signed to compete in all 15 events with the

Ford Focus RS WRC 07 The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye Spor ...

. For some events, Solberg's car was entered by the sister Munchi's Ford World Rally Team. At the season opener, the

2008 Monte Carlo Rally The 2008 Monte Carlo Rally, officially 76ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo, was the 76th Monte Carlo Rally and the first round of the 2008 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place during January 24–27, 2008, beginning with two ...

, the team's fastest driver was

François Duval François Duval (born 18 November 1980) is a Belgian rally driver. Career 1999–2004 Francois Duval is the son of former rally driver Rene Duval. With victories in four events Duval won the Belgian Citroën Saxo Challenge title in 1999. He b ...

, driving a fourth Stobart car, who finished in fourth place. Galli finished third at the Swedish Rally. Duval returned to the team for Rallye Deutschland, and finished third, as the leading Ford driver. On this rally, Galli suffered an injury in a crash that kept him out of action for the rest of the season. Duval replaced him in the team on the next rally in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The factory Ford team decided to swap their driver Latvala with Duval for the two tarmac rallies of

Catalunya Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the northe ...

and

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

, in order to help them to secure the manufacturers' crown. The two drivers returned to their teams for the final two rounds, while Stobart also ran

Valentino Rossi Valentino Rossi (; ; born 16 February 1979) is an Italian former professional motorcycle road racer and nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champion. Nicknamed ''The Doctor'', he is widely considered to be one of the greatest motorcyc ...

on Wales Rally GB.

2009 season

Solberg and Wilson were joined at the team for the start of the 2009 season by Urmo Aava. However, he left the team after two rounds. Solberg scored third-placed finishes in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The team were joined in Poland by

Krzysztof Hołowczyc Krzysztof Wiesław Hołowczyc (; born 4 June 1962 in Olsztyn, Poland) is a Polish rally driver. He won the Polish Rally Championship in 1995, 1996 and 1999 and the European Rally Championship in 1997. He was also member of European Parliament (20 ...

, who finished the rally in sixth place. British privateer and founder of team sponsor Vodka Kick

Steve Perez Steven James Garcia Perez (born 14 December 1956) is an entrepreneur and rally driver from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. He is the founder of Global Brands and driver for the Kick Energy Rally Team. Early life He was educa ...

was entered by the team on Rally GB. The team finished third in the manufacturers' standings behind the Ford and Citroën factory teams. Solberg and Wilson finished sixth and seventh in the drivers' standings respectively.

2010 season

Wilson and Solberg remained with the team again for 2010. For the opening

Rally Sweden The Rally Sweden ( sv, Svenska rallyt), formerly the International Swedish Rally, and later the Uddeholm Swedish Rally, is an automobile rally competition held in February in Värmland, Sweden and relocated to Umeå in 2022. First held in 1950, ...

, Finnish entrepreneur

Mattias Therman Mattias Kristoffer Therman (born 10 April 1974) is a Finland, Finnish businessman and rally driver. He was an owner of Hartwall beverage company and in 2008 he earned more capital gains (over 28 million €) than anyone else in Finland. Rally ca ...

paid for Stobart to run an additional two cars on the rally for himself and retired former world champion

Marcus Grönholm Marcus Ulf Johan Grönholm (born February 5, 1968) is a Finnish former rally and rallycross driver, being part of a family of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland lineage. His son, Niclas Grönholm, is an upcoming FIA World Rallycross Champ ...

. Gronholm showed great speed but endured many issues during the rally and could only finish in 21st place. During the season several other drivers drove alongside the regular drivers Solberg and Wilson – Per-Gunnar Andersson in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, Duval in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Juha Kankkunen Juha Matti Pellervo Kankkunen (; born 2 April 1959) is a Finnish former rally driver. His factory team career in the World Rally Championship lasted from 1983 to 2002. He won 23 world rallies and four drivers' world championship titles, which we ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Ken Block Kenneth Paul Block (November 21, 1967 – January 2, 2023) was an American professional rally driver with the Hoonigan Racing Division, formerly known as the Monster World Rally Team. Block was also one of the co-founders of DC Shoes. He also ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and Liu Chao Dong in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. In various races Solberg, Dennis Kuipers and

Mads Østberg Mads Østberg (born 11 October 1987) is a Norwegian rally driver. His co-driver is Torstein Eriksen. Career Østberg competed in his first rally in 2004. His first World Rally Championship event was the 2006 Swedish Rally, in which he finished ...

drove the new

Ford Fiesta S2000 The Ford Fiesta S2000 is a Super 2000 rally car built by M-Sport. It is based upon the Ford Fiesta road car. It made its racing debut at the 78th Rallye Monte Carlo in 2010, with factory team M-Sport and drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Julien Maur ...

. Again the team finished third in the manufacturers' standings.

2011 season

Willson and Solberg were retained in 2011 with

and Evgeny Novikov joining the team. The best finishes were two second places in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and

which marked the teams best finishes by then. Like in the previous seasons the team finished third behind the works entries of Ford and Citroën.

2012 season

Stobart's support was withdrawn in 2012 and the team was rebranded as M-Sport Ford World Rally Team. Novikov remained with the team and was joined by Ott Tänak, while Østberg, Willson and Solberg left.

2013 season

With Ford no longer having works entry, the M-Sport World Rally Team acquired sponsorship from

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

via Nasser Al-Attiyah. The Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team became the de facto Ford lead team, with returning Mads Østberg and Evgeny Novikov. Meanwhile, a separate formation –

Qatar World Rally Team The Qatar World Rally Team is a Qatari World Rally Championship team, based in Cumbria, United Kingdom. History They made their debut at the 2012 Rally of Sweden, entering a single Citroën DS3 WRC for Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Giovann ...

was also supported by M-Sport, with drivers Al-Attiyah and Thierry Neuville. The team also fielded Ford Fiesta R5 for the 2012 WRC Academy champion Elfyn Evans in the WRC-2. Neuville finished the season as runner-up, long way behind Sebastien Ogier, whiler the team finished third in the team standings.

2014 season

The Qatar's sponsorship ended after the end of the 2013 season. Mikko Hirvonen and Elfyn Evans were nominated for points for the team, while a separate entry would be formed for Robert Kubica – RK M-Sport World Rally Team. Both teams have scored points separately from one another. Hirvonen finished his last season in WRC in fourth place with 126 points, exactly the same amount he scored in 2013, while Evans's debut season ended in seventh place. The team again finished third in the team standings, this time beat revived Hyundai WRT.

2015 season

Elfyn Evans remained in the team, while Ott Tänak returned to M-Sport, replacing Hirvonen. The team scored three podium finishes and dropped back to fourth place behind Hyundai.

2016 season

Tänak went to DMACK WRT and Evans competed in WRC2. Team of

and

Eric Camilli Eric Camilli (born 6 September 1987) is a French rally driver. He has competed in the World Rally Championship since 2014. After starting out in the lower levels, he made his debut in the top level in 2016 while driving for M-Sport in a Ford Fi ...

ended the season in fourth place again.

2017 season

For

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, M-Sport hired

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Ogier (born 17 December 1983) is a French rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC), who is teamed with the co-driver Julien Ingrassia. He has won the World Rally Drivers' Champions ...

as lead driver. Ott Tänak returned to the team after contesting the 2016 season with

DMACK World Rally Team DMACK World Rally Team was a team that competed in the World Rally Championship since 2012 until 2017. History Beginning with the 2011 season, DMACK began supplying tyres for the Scottish Rally Championship and the Production World Rally Champi ...

. Elfyn Evans returned to the premier class after contesting the 2016 season in the WRC-2 category. Ogier won the drivers' championship, claiming two wins and nine podiums. Tänak finished third with two wins and seven podiums. Evans won the Rally GB and finished second at Argentina and Finland, ranking fifth in points. The team won the manufacturers championship, collecting a podium at every round.

2018 season

The team was named "M-Sport Ford World Rally Team" again after 2012, with increased factory support from Ford. Tänak left to Toyota and Suninen received an extended program. Ogier retained the title with four wins and two runner-up finishes, whereas Evans ranked seventh with two podiums. Suninen finished third at Portugal and was 12th in points.

2019 season

Ogier left to join Citroën, while Suninen and Evans is teamed with Pontus Tidemand. Malcolm Wilson stepped back from the team principal role, which was filled by

Rich Millener Richard "Rich" Millener (born 21 April 1984) is a British rally manager. He is the current team principal of M-Sport World Rally Team The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team (formerly M-Sport World Rally Team, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team and Stob ...

2021 season

M-Sport filled two Ford Fiesta WRC cars for the 2021 season. One of them would be driven by Gus Greensmith with a full-time drive, and the second car would be shared between Teemu Suninen and Adrien Fourmaux. However, Teemu Suninen parted ways with the team before Acropolis Rally Greece. As a consequence, Fourmaux would finish the season in the Fiesta. In WRC-2, their line-up would be formed by Teemu Suninen, Adrien Forumaux, Martin Prokop and Tom Kristensson (Winner of 2020 Junior WRC).

2022 season

As the hybrid cars arrived to WRC, Ford will increase their factory support to the team. The new car will be a Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1, in substitution of the Ford Fiesta WRC. Craig Breen and Paul Nagle joined the team in a multi-year deal. Adrien Fourmaux is supposed to be the second driver confirmed, however there is no official confirmation. Sebastien Loeb, the 9-time world champion, has tested the car several times and join the team for a part-time drive.

Results

Gallery

Image:Stobart VK M-Sport Ford.jpg, Stobart cars at 2006 Cyprus Rally Image:Henning Solberg1.JPG, Henning Solberg in 2007 Image:Henning Solberg-2007 Wales Rally GB 001.jpg, Henning Solberg in 2007 Image:Rally Finland 2010 - EK 1 - Henning Solberg.jpg, Henning Solberg at

2010 Rally Finland The 2010 Neste Oil Rally Finland was the 60th Rally Finland and the eighth round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over July 29–31, and is based in Jyväskylä, the capital of the Central Finland region. The rally ...

Image:Henning Solberg in Rally Bulgaria 2010.jpg, Henning Solberg with

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car marketed by Ford since 1976 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and has been positioned below the Escort (later the ...

S2000 at

2010 Rally Bulgaria The 2010 Rally Bulgaria was the seventh round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over July 9–11, and was based in Borovets, around outside the capital city, Sofia. The rally was also the third round of the Junior ...

Image:Jari-Matti Latvala-2007 Wales Rally GB 003.jpg, Jari-Matti Latvala at the

2007 Rally GB The 2007 Wales Rally GB (formally known as 63rd Wales Rally of Great Britain) was the 16th round of the 2007 World Rally Championship. The race was held over three days between 30 November and 2 December 2007. Report Sébastien Loeb became worl ...

Image:Matthew WILSON FORD Focus RS WRC06.JPG, Matthew Wilson Image:Rally Finland 2010 - EK 1 - Matthew Wilson 2.jpg, Matthew Wilson in 2010 Image:Acr2011 586.jpg, Mads Østberg at

2011 Acropolis Rally The 2011 Acropolis Rally was the seventh round of the 2011 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over 17–19 June, and was based in Loutraki, outside the country's capital, Athens. The rally was also the fourth round of the Supe ...

Image:Tänak Surkee 2012.JPG, Ott Tänak at 2nd Surkee stage at

2012 Rally Finland The 62nd Neste Oil Rally Finland was the eighth round of the 2012 World Rally Championship season and was held between 2 and 4 August 2012. In a similar manner to the previous year, the rally was based in Jyväskylä with a super special stage he ...

Image:2012 10 05 Rallye France, ES2, Evgeny Novikov.jpg, Evgeny Novikov in 2012 Image:Mads Ostberg 2013 Portugal.jpg, Mads Østberg at the

2013 Rally de Portugal The 2013 Rally de Portugal was the fourth round of the 2013 World Rally Championship season. The event was based in Faro, Portugal, and started on 11 April and was concluded on 14 April after fifteen special stages, totaling 387 competitive kil ...

Image:2014 rally sweden by 2eight dsc7671.jpg, Elfyn Evans at the

2014 Rally Sweden The 2014 Rally Sweden was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 5 and 8 February, which marked the 62nd running of the Rally Sweden. The rally was based in the town of Karlstad and was contested over 24 special ...

Image:Rajd Polski 2015 Ott Tänak.jpg, Ott Tänak at the

2015 Rally Poland The 2015 Rally Poland was the seventh round of the 2015 World Rally Championship season, held over 2–5 July 2015 and was based at Mikołajki, Poland. Sébastien Ogier won the rally, his fifth victory of the 2015 WRC season. Entry list Overal ...

Image:2017 Rally Australia (19).jpg, Sébastien Ogier at the

2017 Rally Australia The 2017 Rally Australia (formally the 26. Kennards Hire Rally Australia 2017) was the 13th and final round of the 2017 World Rally Championship. The rally was held over three days between 17 November and 19 November 2017, and was based in Coffs ...

Image:M-Sport Ford Puma, Croatia Rally 2022.jpg, Ford Puma Rally1 at the

2022 Croatia Rally The 2022 Croatia Rally (also known as the Rally Croatia 2022) was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 21 and 24 April 2022. It marked the 46th running of the Croatia Rally, and was the third round of the 2022 W ...

References

External links

M-Sport website
{{World Rally Championship Constructors' Champions Ford Team RS World Rally Championship teams European Rally Championship teams Intercontinental Rally Challenge teams