M-Sport – Motorsport Week

M-Sport and Tanak part ways for 2024

David Ledbitter — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:53:59 +0000

Ott Tänak and the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team have arrived at the mutual decision to conclude their partnership at the end of the 2023 FIA World Rally Championship.

Tänak and M-Sport have had many moments to celebrate in 2023 so far – 29 stage wins to date, across 11 events, all highlighting the performance of the Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1 and its position as a world-leading rally car.

Of course, the greatest highlights have been the sublime victory at Rally Chile just days ago and a superlative snow and ice win on what was Tänak’s second outing with the team at Rally Sweden.

The season began with competitive form, delivering fifth overall for Tänak on his maiden outing in the Puma Hybrid Rally1. The team excelled in Sweden through a supreme show of driving ability from Tänak, who fought off the competition to deliver victory alongside the championship lead – which had been the team’s aim from the outset.

Just two rounds later the team were pushing for victory again, this time in Croatia. A total of ten top-three times, including two stage wins, from Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja helped consolidate a strong second place with the fight for the championship still a realistic possibility.

Halfway through the season and Tänak and Järveoja were third in the standings, and still in with a chance of securing the championship; but misfortune through the middle of the season marred any hopes of a second world title.

Despite the setbacks, the team can hold its head up high – knowing that it has continuously taken the fight to the other manufacturers as demonstrated in the most recent round of the FIA World Rally Championship.

Before turning attentions to 2024, there are still two rounds of the 2023 season left to contest and the team’s ambitions remain unaffected – tackling the all-new Central Europe event and Japan with the same dedication, passion, and enthusiasm as shown to date.

The team now turns to fully focusing on ensuring it finds a suitable pathway that will allow it to continue to compete in the top class of the WRC.

Over the last 20 years the team has nurtured some of the sport’s best up and coming drivers – introducing, promoting, and developing the next generation of Rally1 talent.

M-Sport’s talent development is undisputed with every single WRC event winner from the past two decades at one point forming a part of the team. It has given the Cumbrian-based operation a huge pool of knowledge, experience, and inspiration that it strives to pass on to the WRC’s next generation.

M-Sport believe a re-focus towards this approach will be key to the continual long-term development of the team.

As the current partnership with Ott and Martin begins to close, M-Sport would like to thank them for their professionalism and dedication over not only this, but previous seasons enjoyed together – and wish them both all the very best in their future endeavours.

M-Sport Team Principal, Richard Millener, said;
“It has been a pleasure to work with Ott and Martin this season, a lot of work went into making the dream of getting them back to M-Sport a reality. Unfortunately, sometimes things just don’t go as you hoped, and their decision to leave the team at the end of the season is a consequence we need to accept, whilst now thinking towards what we can achieve for 2024.

“I would however like to take the opportunity to thank everyone at M-Sport who has worked tirelessly to give their all into this project with Ott and Martin, their hard work was rewarded with two superb victories but even through misfortune they have never given up, which only goes to show their strength and determination. There are still two events left and our aim remains to deliver further top results.”

M-Sport Chairman, Malcolm Wilson OBE, said;
“Firstly I would like to thank Ott and Martin for their efforts this season. Looking back, the season started so well, fifth overall in Monte Carlo (and Ott’s best finish there in the new Rally1 cars), followed by a victory in Sweden. We had a tough spell after this, and despite their incredible result in Chile, the year we all dreamt of just hasn’t come to fruition. It is obviously very disappointing for me personally to see Ott depart after only one season, but I wish him all the best.

“I would like to also thank every member of the team who has worked day in, day out giving their all to the program, their work ethic never fails to impress me through both the good times and the difficult times, they are all a true asset to M-Sport.”

Ott Tänak said:
“This year has gone by so fast together with M-Sport Ford WRT. I’m proud we have managed to win two rallies against such big manufacturers and we were able to be in the championship fight for the first part of the season. But this sport is tough and unfortunately we went down a few times too many, nevertheless all the people really tried hard to give us the best chances and I’m very grateful for them! I wish all the best to the whole M-Sport family for the upcoming seasons and hopefully we’ll have some good fights ahead of us.”

Tanak closes on Rally Chile victory

David Ledbitter — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 04:25:03 +0000

Ott Tänak closed in on the Rally Chile Bio Bío silverware and his second win of the season by dominating Saturday to build a commanding lead as tyres dominated the day.

Pick the right compound, and you’re good to go. Choose the wrong one, and you lose truckloads of time as Toyota Gazoo Racing trio found out to their cost.

Tänak and his M-Sport Ford Puma were imperious as the Estonian turned a 4.2 second lead into a massive 58.3 second advantage over Hyundai Shell Mobis’ Teemu Suninen at the end of the rally’s longest day.

Saturday’s stages were longer, twistier and much more abrasive than Friday’s. And while Tänak’s rivals leaned towards Pirelli’s soft compound rubber for the morning loop, the Estonian’s decision to take four hard tyres with him made a world of difference.

With their tyres worn down by the time they had reached the final stage before lunchtime, Suninen, Evans and Rovanperä all leaked masses of time. Tänak, whose hard choice boasted a longer lifespan, took full advantage and extended his lead to 47.8sec before service.

Tyre preservation remained a key factor on the repeated afternoon loop but, with the hard work done, Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja were able to manage their lead over Suninen.

“It’s been an extremely good day,” Tänak admitted. “It’s been working in our favour and, on the stages which were bad, we had the advantage to slow down but, when it was needed, we were able to speed up. It’s not finished yet, so we need to keep it going tomorrow.”

Neuville was hindered by a slow puncture in the day’s opening stage but passed Evans late in the morning to make it two Hyundai i20 N cars inside the top three. He and Suninen were split by 13.9sec after Saturday’s loops and barring any drama on Sunday, will postpone Toyota’s Manufacturers’ title celebrations.

For Rovanperä, who ended the day 39.3sec behind Evans in fifth overall, will also most likely have to wait for his second title.

The Finn turns 23 on Sunday and carried a commanding 33-point lead into this 11th round of the season, but requires a score 28 points higher than team-mate Evans’ if he is to celebrate the title with two rallies remaining.

Takamoto Katsuta experienced tyre troubles of his own in SS9 but remained a lonely sixth overall in another Toyota. Behind him was WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg who, along with Gus Greensmith, passed Sami Pajari in the final stage as the Škoda Fabia driver struggled with tyre wear.

Grégoire Munster lost seven minutes when he stopped to change two wheels late in the day. His time loss allowed Yohan Rossel to complete the top 10. Sunday’s finale boasts speed tests in Las Pataguas and El Poñen, each driven twice and punctuated by a brief 15-minute service halt. The second pass of the latter forms the Wolf Power Stage where vital bonus points are up for grabs.

Tanak in control in Chile

David Ledbitter — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 14:35:35 +0000

Ott Tanak returned to the mid-day service with a handy 47.8 second lead after outsmarting his rivals on tyre strategy on Saturday morning’s loop of three stages

Stage seven was particularly dusty with numerous drivers complaining of visibility problems. “For sure, with this dust, you cannot drive like normal”, said Takamoto Katsuta. Thierry Neuville had a puncture, dropping 15.7 seconds to Rovanpera. Suninen dropped behind Evans suffering from a handling imbalance, his Hyundai going from under- to oversteer and wasn’t happy at all.

Drivers switched to tyre management mode for stage eight which was to prove crucial with one stage remaining before heading back to service.

Chilean Alberto Heller, driving a rented Ford Puma, arrived at the end of stage nine with both rear tyres destroyed. Gregoire Munster, making his Rally1 debut, had a spin and ended the stage with a destroyed left rear tyre. Katsuta finished with a delaminated right-rear tyre; Rovanpera finished with bald tyres, ruing his choice of four of Pirelli’s soft compound rubber.

Elfyn Evans also went for the all-soft tyre compound route, and endedthe stage with two delaminated rear tyres and dropped to fourth in the standings

So there’s a Ford, two Hyundais and three Toyotas filling the top six.

Down in WRC2, Oliver Solberg had a huge spin but took the lead from Sami Pajari after the young Finn had to stop several times due to dust visibility issues in the day’s opening stage

Standing after Stage9

Formidable Fourmaux seals British Rally Championship

David Ledbitter — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 05:18:39 +0000

Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux added his name to a spectacular list of champions last weekend, by sealing the coveted Motorsport UK British Rally Championship title with victory at Trackrod Rally Yorkshire this weekend.

The M-Sport factory ace and co-driver Alexandre Coria blitzed the opposition throughout the two-day event, returning a flawless performance behind the wheel of his Ford Fiesta Rally2 to take the overall rally win and with it, the sought-after crown which would head back to the squad’s Dovenby Hall in Cumbria for the first time since 2019.

After the opening 12-mile Dalby Forest test on Friday night, a battle was brewing between Fourmaux and his nearest championship rival Garry Pearson. Fourmaux stopped the clocks just over one second faster than the Scotsman and would need to call on all his World Rally Championship experience to extend that advantage in the daylight of Saturday.

And extend it he did, blasting through the tricky Yorkshire stages with apparent ease to win every single stage of the rally, ensuring he could scribe his name on the trophy alongside superstars such as Colin McRae, Richard Burns, Stig Blomqvist, Ari Vatanen and Elfyn Evans.

“Champions” shouted an elated Fourmaux as he lifted the famous trophy with Coria.

“What a fantastic season in the BRC and it is really nice for me to have my name alongside so many famous names on the trophy, we can be really proud of what we have done this season and I have really enjoyed coming to Britain and competing on so many different events”.

“Five wins is a nice feeling actually and the team have done such a good job on the car. We came here for time in the car and to try some new things and it has worked really well. I have really enjoyed my time in the championship and actually, it’s been a tough season, I am happy to win the trophy”.

Fourmaux has been a tour-de-force in the British Championship this season, winning every one of the events he has contested, meaning he and co-driver Alex Coria take the crown with a round to spare. Further proof, if needed that a return to Rally2 machinery could well put him in good stead for a shot at the World Rally Championship Rally1 top-flight once again in the near future.

That left second place to Pearson and co-driver Daniel Barritt who were sampling their Volkswagen Polo GTi on the gravel for the first time. Complete with a change to Pirelli rubber for the weekend, the pairing put in their best performance of the season so far, ensuring the title was within grasp should Fourmaux falter.

Keeping Fourmaux honest in the darkness of Dalby was a confidence lift but once the daylight arrived, it became a tougher prospect to match his times and despite a gallant effort, would have to take runner up spot away from the weekend.

The battle for the final podium places was less clear cut however but taking third would be Stephen Petch and Michael Wilkinson. Switching to Michelin for the event, Petch entered into a tussle with Tom Williams who returned to the BRC for the first time since 2021, both drivers swapping times throughout the weekend.

Some set-up changes to Williams’ and co-driver Ross Whittock’s Fiesta Rally2 helped matters on Saturday, but it was too late to catch the Skoda Fabia Rally2 driver and Petch would go on to make good use of his bonus point-inducing Joker card, with third spot and a career best BRC result to boot.

The co-driver’s crown is still up for grabs and could well be decided at the final round in Wales at the end of October.

Ott Tanak claims first victory for M-Sport at Rally Sweden

Josh Disborough — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 12:34:52 +0000

Ott Tanak claimed his first victory with his new squad and M-Sport’s first since Rallye Monte-Carlo last year. The Estonian survived a late scare to win by 18.7s to Hyundai’s Craig Breen. A fumbled team order meant that the Irishman finished ahead of Neuville by 1.3s.

Tanak started the final day by extending his lead over Breen on SS16. The Estonian created an 11.6s gap to his Hyundai rival despite having a minor scare at a braking point in the stage. Breen responded in the next stage, however, outpacing Tanak by 3.1s to cut the lead back to 8.5s.

In the battle for the final spot on the podium, Kalle Rovanpera closed the gap to Thierry Neuville with the advantage of starting with four fresh tyres paying dividends. 1.1s separated the two heading into the last two stages of the rally. The Belgian replied by fitting fresh tyres and winning the stage by 3.8s to Breen, but more importantly, Neuville gained 6s on Rovanpera to re-open the gap to 7.1s

Drama struck though before the final stage as Breen was handed a 10s time penalty for arriving at regroup a minute late. This dropped the Irishman to third with his full-time teammate, Neuville promoted to second place before the Wolf Power Stage.

Neuville was the first of the top three to finish the stage but made a mistake when he nearly overshot a junction 8.7km into the test. This meant that the likely team order that put Neuville ahead of Breen, failed.

“It wasn’t a good stage,” Neuville commented at the finish. “I was a bit scared in the brakings and I was afraid to overshoot. We are here. It was an incredible weekend, a tough weekend, but a great weekend for the team overall. All the drivers did a good job and the car was fast. That’s the positive from this weekend.”

This meant Breen finished 1.8s in front of his teammate and in second place. Breen was delighted with the result but acknowledged that it wasn’t the plan heading into the final stage.

“That wasn’t the plan, but I had no way of knowing. We’re happy – it’s been an incredible weekend and great to be back at the front again,” said Breen.

With Hyundai failing to put Neuville in front of Breen and costing the Irishman time, all that was left to do was for Ott Tanak to bring home the victory in what is his first for M-Sport Ford in only his second start.

“It obviously means a lot to me, to come into a new car and deliver to these guys at M-Sport. It’s a big effort for them to fight against such big manufacturers. I am sure they are getting quite a bit of stress from me, but as long as it’s delivering then we are all winning. It’s great to be part of this team,” said Tanak.

Esapekka Lappi took the power stage honours followed by Elfyn Evans and Rovanpera with the top 5 covered by 0.8s.

Overall standings:

Tanak – +2hr 25min 54.5s
Breen – +18.7s
Neuville – +20.0s
Rovanpera – +25.1s
Evans – +1min 24s
Loubet – +5min 59s

Next up, the teams head to Mexico on 16^th – 19^th March where Sebastien Ogier will return at the wheel of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1.

Rally1 manufacturers to contest national rally events

Josh Disborough — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 19:14:07 +0000

Three drivers will be competing in various national rallies as they prepare for the upcoming Rally Sweden in February.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tänak have all entered national rallies in their preparations for round two of the 2023 WRC season.

Tänak will take is Puma Rally1 to Estonia on 4^th February to compete in the Otepää Rally whereas Katsuta and Lappi take their respective machines to the Kuopio Ralli in Finland on the same weekend.

Testing restrictions mean that this year teams are only allowed 21 days of testing per year – seven days per driver. Because of this, crews have decided to compete in national rounds as they are not classified as test days.

Tänak said: ‘It’s great we can take the Puma Rally1 to my home roads and I’m sure that the local rally fans are happy for this news.”

Thierry Neuville was critical of the new rules calling them “ridiculous” in the opening round at Monte-Carlo

“We need to be prepared. We have many events with bad shakedowns that are not representative of the rallies at all, and not having a test could make it somehow dangerous at some point if you don’t get the right settings from the beginning. But it is what it is.”

M-Sport unveil their 2023 WRC challenger

Josh Disborough — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 09:31:23 +0000

M-Sport have taken off the covers of their 2023 Ford Puma Rally1 machine that will be driven full-time by Ott Tanak and Pierre-Louis Loubet.

Tanak joins the squad after leaving the Hyundai team after last season and will be the spearhead of M-Sport’s assault on the championship this season. Loubet gets a promotion to a full-time ride after completing a seven-round campaign in 2022.

There will be a third car at select rounds of the season with privateer, Jourdan Serderidis electing to compete at Monte Carlo, Mexioco, Sardinia and Kenya. There is also a question mark over Sebastien Loeb’s plans for the season as there is currently no deal in place.

The new Puma also features more prominent backing from RedBull which sees the purple of last year taken over by some blue and pink flashes. Another benefit of the increased backing is that Tanak and Loubet will be inducted as Redbull athletes.

Serderidis will also adopt the new livery for the Monte Carlo round instead of his usual colours.

The team statement reads: “Inspired by synthwave music, and maintaining its electrified look as a nod to the hybrid era, 2023’s livery features neon bolts of vibrant pink and electric blue across a canvas of the iconic Ford blue,”

“The team takes the success of 2022’s stunning livery and takes it one step further, hoping to make an impact in both colour and performance in 2023.”

The car will make its debut in Monte Carlo this weekend for the World Rally Championship opener.

Loeb leads Ford 1-2 after battle with Loubet

Josh Disborough — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 18:03:11 +0000

Sebastien Loeb ended Friday’s tests on top after a battle with Ford teammate Pierre-Louis Loubet throughout the day. Loeb led Loubet by 1.7s in a Ford 1-2 followed by Esapekka Lappi third in his Toyota.

The second Acropolis Rally Greece since its return last year got off to a spectacular start under the lights on Thursday. Tens of thousands of fans packed the Athens Olympic Stadium to watch rally titans run side by side in the super special stage. The venue last featured in 2006 and it was the king of super specials, Thierry Neuville, once again claiming the lead. The Hyundai driver led a Hyundai 1-2-3-4 which had WRC2 entrant, Teemu Suninen, in second place just a tenth behind. The tight confines of the layout meant that the lesser powered Rally2 cars weren’t at such a disadvantage and Suninen made that count. Dani Sordo would round off the podium with Ott Tanak in fourth.

The first full day of the rally started with the returning Sebastien Loeb turning in a what seemed to be dominant performance until losing momentum as the temperatures to increase. This allowed compatriot Loubet to make his way to the top of the timesheets after Loeb overshot a hairpin.

Loubet and Loeb were spearheading a Ford resurgence of the likes not really seen since the opening round of this year’s championship. Loubet had continued to lead throughout the day until late in the evening when technical issues for the leader along with Loeb’s previous experience of the last stage, meant that the French legend usurped his teammate at the top.

Behind the two Fords was Esapekka Lappi who would finish 8.7s away from the duo. Lappi finished as the only Toyota to finish in the top six. The Finn had been keeping the leading drivers honest as he was running second going into the final stage, however, had to settle for third after Loeb jumped him.

Neuville fronted the Hyundai charge in fourth after an unfavourable road position. The Belgian is only 7.3s away from Lappi and is still in realistic contention for this rally as well as doing all he can to delay Kalle Rovanpera’s seemingly inevitable coronation.

Neuville was followed by Sordo and Tanak who were both struggling with various issues. Sordo had a lack of confidence in the pace notes whereas Tanak was suffering from a faulty hybrid unit.

Gus Greensmith and Elfyn Evans were next with only 3.4s separating them from Tanak. Championship leader Rovanpera would suffer a bad day after opening the road. Extremely loose conditions and his two Hyundai rivals’ current positions mean that an early sealing of the title was slim.

Takamoto Katsuta and Craig Breen rounded out the top 10, the Ford man had to stop to change a wheel which cost him a chunk of time.

Top 6 after Day 1

Loeb 1hr 12min 11.9s
Loubet +1.7s
Lappi +8.7s
Neuville +16.0s
Sordo +22.2s
Tanak +31.1s

Fourmaux proud to represent Ford in Kenya

Nick Turner — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 16:58:03 +0000

Adrien Fourmaux completed the first full day of Safari Rally Kenya in sixth place after surviving another brutal day in the WRC on only his third entry in the sports top tier.

But the Frenchman has been reflecting on the pride he feels on being honoured to represent M-Sport Ford on an event last won by world rally legend Colin McRae in 2002.

“It’s really nice to know the last driver to win the Safari in the WRC was Colin McRae in the M-Sport Focus,” he said.

“It will be really difficult to do exactly the same result although you never know because a lot of things can happen. But I want to stay quite humble. It’s an honour for me to do this rally and I can only say thanks to M-Sport for this opportunity.

“To go to Kenya is really good but with the WRC car it’s a dream and I can’t wait to discover not only the rally but the humanity and the landscape.”

However, such was the challenge of day one, a clean run may see him match or better his best WRC finish of fifth which he scored on his WRC debut in Croatia.

Having impressed on his previous two outings in the Fiesta WRC, the Frenchman was looking to take a more cautious approach with no pressure placed on him by the team.

“I have watched the video of the organizer,” he continued. “In some places we will have to almost stop because it’s really rough, but this is when we have to be smart enough to say: ‘Okay, this section we have to be slow. But this section we can be fast.

“It’s really good that the WRC has gone back to Kenya. Okay, it’s a shorter event this time compared to the old WRC event, but it will still be hard and completely different to what we know.

“I’m a bit too young to remember watching the Safari Rally when it used to be in the WRC, but I have seen some videos and it was amazing to see the Ford Focus with the extra bars at the front.

“We will not have this protection but I am sure we will find some giraffes and elephants on the stages so it will be really interesting and for sure we will have to be careful.”