The M-Sport Ford racing team has experienced ups and downs in the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship season, leaving Ypres Rally Belgium disappointed after a calamitous performance in August.
All three of the M-Sport Ford drivers suffered on-track incidents in Belgium. Craig Breen held down fifth place in Stage 10 of the asphalt portion of the rally, but made a mistake that sent him careening off-course and causing his Ford Puma race car to flip. Thankfully, Breen was ok after the wreck, though his race car was anything but.
Gus Greensmith also ran off-course in the same stage. While his Puma was able to continue, the incident caused severe damage to the race car’s left rear, costing him precious minutes on his way to the finish. He ended up finishing 19th overall. Then, Adrien Fourmaux was running fifth when he wrecked out of the second-to-last stage, almost upending his Puma as he slid into a ditch and killing his chances of securing a decent finish.
The WRC season has certainly taken a turn for the worse for the M-Sport Ford stable, which began strong by leading the manufacturer’s points. Unfortunately, the latter half of the season has seen that lead slowly slip away as trouble continues to befall The Blue Oval and its racers.
M-Sport Ford team principal, Richard Millener, understands that difficulties can happen at any time, but he is still disappointed in his team’s performance.
“It’s part of rallying, that can happen, but to have the amount of bad luck we’re having or mistakes that are being made is not good for anybody,” he said. “I still stand by the team, stand by the car, we’ve got to work together again, there’s no point fighting internally with each other. We need to get better results, simple as that.”
The FIA WRC season continues on September 8th at EKO Acropolis Rally Greece. In the meantime, be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Puma news, Ford racing news, and ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
Rather then rushing to get the driver out and make sure he is OK several are more interested in getting pictures…….what a different world we live in today !
STOP this show ASAP Ford Performance. Ford Motor Company became a C-player in Europe with a ridiculous market share of around 4%, I repeat 4%!!!! The brand should concentrate on its survival in Europe and STOP with losing on the track. It’s already hard enough to witness that they lose everyday existing and possible future customers! No replacement for the Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo, S-Max and Galaxy???cWRC is mainly an European sport where customers need for instance an Evos in the showroom. Wake up Ford Performance and Ford Motor Company, it’s already very hard to see the brand vanish in Europe, do they want to waste more MONEY by supporting M-Sport and making a fool of Ford’s incredible heritage in racing!!! And yes, the Sierra RS Cosworth was a winner for instance, just like the V8 F1 engine. Don’t have minutes about it, just TAKE ACTION and stop WRC at the end of this year. By the way, the actual Puma is outsold in Europe dear Ford Authority by its competitors, which aren’t present in racing right now! And we all know that the Puma is the biggest hit for Ford. Says it all, doesn’t it???