Ford’s European division announced on Thursday that it is extending its participating in the FIA World Rally Championship into 2012 and 2013. Ford’s WRC program will continue to be operated by UK-based M-Sport.
The team will be named Ford World Rally Team and will retain support from Castrol for the next two years. Ford’s “weapon” of choice will be the Fiesta RS WRC, which made its debut this year and claimed the first three places in the first and the last races of the season.
Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila, who won the most special stages in the 2011 championship, will be the team leaders, while 2003 world champion Peter Solberg and co-driver Chris Patterson will drive the second Fiesta RS WRC in next year’s championship.
Gerard Quinn, Ford of Europe’s senior manager for motorsport, commented: “The WRC is motorsport’s toughest competition for production-based cars. We have a great team with M-Sport and its leader, Malcolm Wilson, and in Jari-Matti Latvala we have one of motorsport’s rising stars. Already regarded by many as the fastest driver in WRC, this year he showed consistency and expertise on all surfaces.”
Quinn added that the addition of Solberg, who drove for Ford in 1999, “brings one of the sport’s most experienced and flamboyant drivers back to the team where he started his top-level career.”
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