Ford Returns to the WRC as a Manufacturer

For the first time since 2012, there will be a works Ford team in the World Rally Championship. The company has confirmed a factory return for the 2028 WRC season, with M-Sport set to run the programme, in a car adhearing to the WRC27 regulations in 2029. 

The Blue Oval becomes the third new addition to the series, after Project Rally One and RMC Motorsport, both of which confirmed entries for the 2027 season. Unlike those two tuner entries, however, Ford is a manufacturer. In fact, this is the first OEM drawn in by the WRC27 regulations, and the first to commit to a works programme since Toyota returned in 2017.

The team will compete in 2027 and 2028 with a Ford Fiesta Rally2, that will be upgraded to WRC27/Rally1 specification, before transitioning onto a new vehicle for the 2029 season, based on the 2027 rules.

Ford is a brand with a rich history in the World Rally Championship, with the manufacturer being the make with the most wins in the WRC, with 94, the brand with the most podiums with 379, as well as having three manufacturers' titles to their name (1979, 2006 and 2007).

Many of the sport's greats have worn its colours. Björn Waldegård and Ari Vatanen won drivers' titles in Ford Escorts in 1979 and 1981, and Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Marcus Grönholm, Sébastien Ogier, Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans have all driven for the brand since, as has nine-time champion Sébastien Loeb.

Ford pulled out of the World Rally Championship at the end of 2012, citing financial pressures. Ford cars never left the stages though: M-Sport has run them ever since, with only limited backing from the parent company. 

In that time, the Cumbrian based team, has won twelve WRC rounds, won the 2017 manufacturers' title and helped Sébastien Ogier to the 2017 and 2018 drivers' titles. That matches the two drivers' crowns Ford had won before their withdrawal from the series.

Written by Dimitris Theodorou