Mads Ostberg will be competing in the 2017 World Rally Championship season, after announcing he has teamed up with Czech privateer Martin Prokop to rally a pair of 2017 spec WRC Ford Fiestas from Rally Sweden onwards.
The two cars will be run by Ostberg’s Adapta team which previously ran Ostberg between 2007 and 2010 and then in 2012.
Prokop, who is currently competing with the blue oval on the Dakar Rally, has been a regular in the old Ford Fiesta WRC since 2012, run under his JipoCar team from the Czech Republic.
Both driver’s teams will work together to run the cars, with help from M-Sport.
The team will miss the opening round in Monte Carlo, but will join the season in Sweden, although Ostberg will miss the Mexico round as his wife is due to give birth on that date.
Ostberg’s future in the WRC was in question when M-Sport signed world champion Sébastien Ogier to lead it’s 2017 campaign with the remaining seats filled by Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans.
Morten Ostberg, father of Mads, said “We are very excited about the year to come. Mads will be in an M-Sport Ford in Sweden, that we can confirm.
“He has tested the 2017 Fiesta twice now, but he will test more before Sweden. We have seen in the recent years what Mads is capable of in Sweden, so it was important for us to be sure to have him in the new car.”
“The plan is to do what we did in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, when we were running the car with our own Adapta team under the umbrella of M-Sport,” added Ostberg Sr.
“This year it looks like we will be even more independent, working with Martin Prokop’s team from the Czech Republic.”
Despite being independents, the team will be officially entered by M-Sport as 2017-spec cars are only allowed to be entered by factory teams.
