M-Sport Ford is almost ready to put pen to paper to get two-time world champion rally driver Carlos Sainz on board for The Blue Oval’s W2RC racing program, according to a report from DirtFish.
Sainz (not to be confused with his son, Formula One driver Carlos Sainz Jr.) has won the Dakar Rally four times, most recently this year, where he drove an Audi RS e-Tron to victory. However, Sainz is now a free agent after Audi’s decision to bow out of off-road racing. In fact, this coming weekend at Portugal, he’ll drive a Mini JCW Rally Plus in the T1+ division, where M-Sport Ford competes.
“There was a chance to do Portugal,” Sainz said, “so, why not? It will give me fresh input from a T1+ and, finally, if I am going to join Ford it will bring good info to know another car before jumping in the Ford.”
Sainz indicated that he thinks he’ll pen a deal with M-Sport Ford within the month, and that he’s been in deep discussions with the automaker. If the deal pulls through, it won’t be the first time Sainz has driven a Blue Oval off-road racer, and he’s confident that he’ll get the chance to race for FoMoCo once more.
“More than 50-50, for sure,” he said when asked about the chances of signing on with M-Sport Ford. “Much. First we need to finalize the deal, which I hope is in the next month, then as soon as the car is ready, we would start testing.”
Sainz will take control of a Ford Ranger T1 off-road race truck, which recently debuted in the 2024 Dakar Rally. While mechanical issues plagued the Ranger teams, Ford gained valuable data for future off-road racing endeavors, setting the stage for the new Ranger Dakar racer that will debut for the 2025 season. M-Sport Ford has been on a roll lately in other motorsports disciplines, posting fantastic results at Safari Rally Kenya 2024.
We’ll have more on the Ford Ranger T1+ soon, so be sure to subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford Ranger news, Ford Ranger Raptor news, and 24/7 Ford news coverage.
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