Coming off a largely uneven 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WRC) season that saw its fair share of ups and downs, the Ford M-Sport team is once again implementing a handful of changes with an eye toward righting the proverbial ship heading into the new year. As Ford Authority has reported over the past few weeks, those moves include revamping M-Sport’s driver lineup, for starters. Now, M-Sport has unveiled the Ford Puma Rally1 racers those drivers will pilot with an eye toward securing podium finishes and wins in the coming 2025 season.
It’s official: The Purple Puma is Back for 2025 🟣🐈⬛#WRC | #FordPerformance | #RedBull | #MIRallyAcademy | #SafetyCulture pic.twitter.com/quMfahM910
— M-Sport (@MSportLtd) January 18, 2025
Donning an updated livery, the 2025 Ford Puma Rally1 racers will make their debut at the Monte Carlo Rally next week. As has previously been the case, the racers continue to don Red Bull and SafetyCulture logos as part of their liveries, which will adorn a couple of Ford Puma Rally1 entries – with Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka behind the wheel, as well as the duos of Mārtiņš Sesks and Renārs Francis and Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy.
With the FIA opting to nix hybrid power from the Rally1 racers this year, M-Sport Ford faces some challenges in regard to reconfiguring its rally racers, but the outfit has managed that by tweaking the Puma’s engine mapping, while also changing up the gear ratios to compensate.
Meanwhile, the team is also moving on from Adrien Fourmaux, who opted to leave M-Sport Ford for Hyundai this season. It’s a big loss for the Blue Oval rally team, given the fact that Fourmaux recorded five podium finishes in 2024 after enjoying a bit of a breakout season. Fourmaux will now look to improve upon that result behind the wheel of Hyundai’s i20 N racer.
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