The car manufacturer Ford recently announced that it will stop the production of the classic model Fiesta but will still be available for rallying beyond 2023.
As the cars of the private team M-Sport Ford Rally2, Rally3, and Rally4 programs are based specifically on the Fiesta, the team assures that customers can take it easy as the development and construction of Fiesta rally cars will continue. 80 percent of M-Sport´s cars are currently based on the Ford Fiesta model. However, a new car model entered the main class this season when the M-Sport´s Rally1 hybrid car got based on the Ford Puma.
The British outfit, in cooperation with Ford Performance, has acquired a large pile of Fiesta bodies for stage. The team assures that the development work of the cars will also continue for years to come at the British and Polish factories. Major updates are expected to come for the cars in each class over the next 12 months.
“The Fiesta is a core part of M-Sport’s business activities and has been behind a lot of the company’s success in the past two decades. Thanks to our long and storied partnership with Ford, we were able to begin preparing for the end of the Fiesta’s production well ahead of time. I would like to assure all of our customers that we will still be building Fiesta rally cars for years to come, both in the UK and Poland.” Malcolm Wilson, M-Sport Managing Director said.
“The Fiesta was the very first customer focussed car M-Sport developed and I think 2,000 overall victories speaks for itself. Development is underway across the board with our Fiesta based cars as well, with the Fiesta Rally2, Rally3 and Rally4 currently enjoying thorough development programmes. I’d like to personally thank Ford for their support over the years with the Fiesta. Ford and the Fiesta allowed M-Sport to grow as a business with its customer programmes which Ford trusted us with and continues to do so.”
M-Sport´s first Ford Fiesta ST came to the market in 2005. Fiesta achieved its greatest result in the 2017 and 2018 seasons when Sébastien Ogier became the world champion and the team managed to secure the manufacturer title two years in a row.
