Fiesta or Puma? M-Sport has yet to decide its Rally1 name

We don’t yet know which name will be on the nameplate of the 2022 Ford Rally1 WRC hybrid. Meanwhile, discussions on the subject continue between M-Sport and Ford itself.

On Tuesday, the British team released some photos of the Fiesta Rally1 prototype on asphalt and gravel. Since then, videos have appeared on social media of the car being tested on a dirt road test in Spain led by Matthew Wilson.

These shots also revealed the Newly developed safety cell from FIAAnother key element in the next round of rules focused on the new hybrid technology. The bodywork was clearly a Fiesta, but due to the fact that Puma was born on the same bodywork, Adaptation of panels should not require many adjustments.

The Fiesta has been in service since 2011, with the Fiesta RS WRC being replaced by the Fiesta WRC in 2017. The car’s best seasons came in 2017 and 2018 with Sebastian Augier at the wheel, a Frenchman with six wins and one total. Nine pads.

However, team leader Richard Milner told Autosport that there is at least one other option, besides the Fiesta, for the upcoming season. Although we still do not know what the second model might be, The change in purchasing tastes among European motorists makes small mobility possible And this is where, as he had already feared many times, the role of Puma.

There is still some discussion about what is the best. When we start testing outside the UK over the next few months, I’m sure some pictures will appear. So I’m leaving the job for them, without getting in trouble!

Conversely, Hyundai Motorsport has already chosen the i20 N for its Rally1 project and Toyota for the Yaris GR.

While all three teams have been affected by their developers’ recent recall of hybrid systems, Compact Dynamics, M-Sport and Toyota have managed to continue their work. Toyota Team Leader Yari Matti Latvala said ahead of last week’s Croatian Rally that the Yaris will be “scheduled” for testing by summer, despite the recall, while Hyundai chief, Andrea Adamo, is confident the car will be finished in time.

It’s hard to tell when to turn the car on, but when we do most of the work, we’ll know how and when that will happen. There were some fairly natural growth problems [con i kit ibridi] – But I don’t expect there will be others.