{"id":2183376,"date":"2026-10-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2183376"},"modified":"2026-10-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T21:00:00","slug":"fords-heading-back-to-the-world-rally-championship-with-a-new-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2183376","title":{"rendered":"Ford’s heading back to the World Rally Championship with a new car"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Good news! Ford’s coming back to the World Rally Championship! ‘But Ford’s already in<\/em> the World Rally Championship’, you might cry. Settle those bobble hats: this announcement marks Ford Racing’s return as a full<\/em> factory team.<\/p>\n

Which means it’ll team up with long-time partner M-Sport (who already race Fords in the WRC) to make a 2028 comeback with a brand-new car from its “upcoming line-up” of Euro cars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ford\u2019s return follows a 14-year hiatus from WRC after a tough season and a challenging economic environment leading to its withdrawal in 2012. Despite M-Sport running the likes of the Puma Rally1 in WRC in the meantime, 2028 will mark the first return for Ford to full factory racing status.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake though, Ford is no stranger to the world of rally. Take its 50-year history within the sport, which includes competing in the very first WRC in 1973 to four manufacturers’ and three drivers\u2019 championships. Not too shabby.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As ever, Ford’s talking big about the race-to-road transfer. Competing in the WRC will aid the development of five new \u201cunapologetic and agile rally-bred passenger vehicles\u201d for Europe by the end of 2029. One of these yet-to-be revealed cars will eventually form the basis for the new rally car.<\/p>\n

According to Ford\u2019s European boss Jim Baumbick, the goal for the new cars is to be \u201cresponsive, confidence-inspiring, and rewarding to drive on the roads people use every day”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The return to WRC represents the latest piece in Ford\u2019s embiggened global motorsport jigsaw. The manufacturer has already made a return to Formula One earlier this year in a powertrain partnership with Red Bull Racing, and wants to enter the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2027.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good news! Ford’s coming back to the World Rally Championship! ‘But Ford’s already in the World Rally Championship’, you might cry. Settle those bobble hats: this announcement marks Ford Racing’s return as a full factory team. Which means it’ll team up with long-time partner M-Sport (who already race Fords in the WRC) to make a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-2183376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2183376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2183376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2183376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2183376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}