M-Sport has revealed its 2013 Ford Fiesta for this year’s World Rally Championship at AUTOSPORT International.
The team’s WRC future was placed in doubt over the winter following the announcement that Ford would withdraw its factory support at the end of 2012.
However, M-Sport has managed to sign a major deal with Qatar to keep it in the series, and it revealed its 2013 Fiesta WRC on the AUTOSPORT stage with KX on Thursday morning.
Team boss Malcolm Wilson said: “The last three months of last year were the most difficult of my business life.
“The reduced investment from Ford obviously put a lot of pressure on the team to find added investment.
“With the Fiesta WRC we have a fantastically competitive car and the last thing we wanted was not to be able to fight at the highest level.
“We’ve got Qatar on board which has filled a big hole. We’ve got some way to go but I’m confident that we can challenge for some good results and that will bring more interest.”
Mads Ostberg, who will be joined by Evgeny Novikov and Thierry Neuville in the team this year, said he was happy with the performance of the 2013-spec car in testing.
“The car feels good,” he said. “I did two and a half days in December and the last test day before we go to Monte Carlo is tomorrow.
“This is a big opportunity, and we have been working very hard to get into this position.
“The first aim is to start winning rallies. During the season maybe we will need to focus on the championship but at the beginning we just want to get good results and start winning.”
Casey James Mears Juan Pablo Montoya Joseph Francis Nemechek III Ryan Joseph Newman
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