This weekend the second round of the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship will be taking place in northern Sweden, as the Rally Sweden moves it’s location from Torsby to Umeå. The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team crews have been busy preparing for the first snow event with the all-new Rally1 cars.
Arriving in Sweden after a dream start of the 2022 season when Sébastien Loeb won the season-opener in Rallye Monte-Carlo for the team, they have now spent the last couple of weeks getting the cars converted to snow specifications as well as building an all-new chassis for Adrien Fourmaux after his massive off in Monte-Carlo.
The team have run pre-event tests last week and are ready for the rally, they will be fielding three Ford Puma Rally1 cars in the top category for Craig Breen, Gus Greensmith and Fourmaux.
Along with the efforts in Rally1, the team will also be starting their 2022 WRC2 campaign with two Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars and support the start of the 2022 FIA Junior World Rally Championship together with the M-Sport’s Poland division.
Ahead of the Rally Sweden, the Team Principal Richard Millner said; “After the success in Monte with a 1-3-5 finish, our focus heading into Sweden is on maintaining those level of results. Craig goes into this event in a very strong position, and with M-Sport Ford currently leading the manufacturers’ championship, we’re fully focused on more solid results this week.”
“The snow and ice conditions are going to be a challenge for our non-Scandinavian crews, but we’re coming into this event with a car that we know is strong and highly competitive, so we’re optimistic we can build on the success from Monte. I think we will see more impact of the new hybrid cars on these fast snow stages, but the team back at Dovenby have continued to work very hard to ensure the cars are ready for the challenge.”
The rally starts with the annual night ceremony on Thursday night before the shakedown, on Friday the real thing begins with two loops of three stages that are held north of Umeå.
