The team’s future in the WRC was called into question at last weekend’s Acropolis Rally after an interview with driver Pierre-Louis Loubet was published in French media, indicating that the team would not compete in Rally 1 in the might not be there next year. The article has since been classified as “fake news” and removed.
M-Sport has endured a challenging 2023 season, which Wilson admits was a “terrible year” marked by bad luck and reliability issues. But the team remains committed to competing in the WRC’s top class in the future and Wilson believes the operation has the “ingredients” to return to the top.
Thanks to Ott Tanak’s triumph at the Rally Sweden in February, the Ford team has matched its total number of victories from last season.
“We will do everything we can to find a way to stay at the highest level,” Wilson told Autosport/Motorsport.com.
“We have a great team and still a great car. We had a terrible year this year and I don’t know why. I think everyone has these glitches.
“You just have to look at Formula 1 and, for example, where Williams and McLaren were. All the ingredients and the resource are still there to get back to where we need to be.”
Currently competing as a semi-factory team with fewer resources compared to Toyota and Hyundai, the competition presents the challenge of securing budgets every year, but M-Sport has been present in rallying’s top class since 1997.
Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Photo by: M-Sport
The introduction of the Rally1 car last year has compounded the challenge, with the FIA openly admitting that costs have far exceeded the target. The world motorsport association is examining ways to reduce this number.
M-Sport’s core business model is based on selling cars to customers. Currently only two Rally1 cars have been sold and only one of them has been sold to an active competitor, Jourdan Serderidis.
Responding to speculation about the team’s future, M-Sport team boss Richard Millener added: “I don’t think so [Pierre-Louis] spoke to the guy [the journalist] That’s what confuses me.
“Nothing so dramatic is planned. I think the fact that it was removed shows that the message is certainly not real. It was taken out of context and hopefully we managed to cover it up.
“There is no denying that there are challenges every year in finding the budgets for the sequel, but there are definitely no discussions about stopping at the moment.”
“Certainly Malcolm has no intention of quitting and neither do I. We have 100 employees for the rally team and we will make every effort to ensure that we are here.
“Yes, we don’t know the driver line-ups for next year and our goal at the moment is to keep Ott [Tanak] in the team, but this is also a significant task, but we will just keep going to make sure we do the best we can.”
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