Ford Live

The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) is Ford of Europe's primary motor sport activity. Ford has been rallying for many years and has a strong heritage that Ford TeamRS is nurturing. For the past 10 years, with the help of M-Sport who run the Ford WRC team day-to-day from their base in Cumbria, Ford has been highly competitive in this challenging championship, winning the FIA WRC Manufacturers' Title in 2006, to name just one. Whilst the Ford Focus RS WRC looks like a road-going Focus on the outside, it has actually been given a super-charged engine and a strengthened chassis, among a number of other developments, which allow it to compete in all WRC events each year. Sixteen WRC events take place all over the world, across four continents, in challenging and different climates and weather conditions. The BP-Ford World Rally Team is close to winning the Manufacturers' Title again this year, thanks to Finnish drivers Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen who, among the incredibly skilfull Team, contribute to gaining valuable points.

Ford TeamRS also oversees a number of other motor sport involvements, including national championships, like Formula Ford in the UK and the Fiesta ST Cup in Germany. Ford's aim is to be involved at a high level in every significant competition and to foster the accessibility of the motor sport ladder, thereby ensuring that new talents and technologies are swiftly recognised. Involvement in motor sport is an opportunity for Ford to showcase the technology talent that exists within the company in a way that engages both staff and public, getting them excited about the company and its products. Ford TeamRS ensures that racing expertise is closely linked into the development process of performance cars. This guarantees that Ford racing enthusiasts can buy Ford products that have as close a link to Ford's rich motor sport heritage as possible.