M-Sport is preparing to enter an ambitious new era following confirmed full works commitment from Ford in the WRC. Announced during Rally Sardinia, the American automotive giant's return as a complete factory outfit marks a pivotal shift in the World Rally Championship landscape and sets up a formidable title assault.
Speaking on the Krunching Gears podcast, M-Sport Team Principal Richard Millener revealed that extensive operational overhauls are already underway. The team has laid out a clear roadmap designed to transform their setup into a world championship-winning force over the coming transition period.
"We are now targeting 2029, when we want to fight for the world championship. The 2027 and 2028 seasons will be preparation years for us," explained Millener. He noted that subtle upgrades will debut as early as Rallye Monte-Carlo 2027. "There will already be some small changes at the 2027 Rally Monte Carlo, with more gradually introduced as the season progresses. The good thing is that we have this transition period and everything does not have to be ready overnight."
Millener candidly addressed key areas where M-Sport needs to step up its game to fight consistently at the sharp end of the leaderboard. Internal evaluations highlighted the necessity for additional personnel, state-of-the-art workshop equipment, and modernized working protocols across all departments.
"We know which areas require more personnel, where we need newer equipment and what new working practices we need to introduce. We also need to invest more in helping the drivers understand where they can still improve their performance. We need to do more development work as well," Millener stated regarding the squad's technical overhaul.
Parallel to long-term preparations, M-Sport will maintain development on the current Fiesta platform over the next two seasons. Despite tight homologation restrictions, the engineering team intends to extract every fraction of speed available. Millener emphasized that the incoming level of factory backing exceeds even what the team received during their dominant title-winning campaigns in 2017 and 2018.
"We are returning to the kind of full-scale operating model we had in 2012 and 2013, for example. We will now receive even stronger backing than we did when we won the championships in 2017 and 2018. So we know what we need to do," Millener concluded. "Winning the world championship is not easy, but it is clear that this is exactly what we have been hired to do. We are now working towards achieving that goal."
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