Ford has announced a major four-year commitment to the World Rally Championship as the spearhead of its motorsport activities for the foreseeable future. M-Sport, which has run the works team since 1997, will remain in its current role.

The move follows a comprehensive review of Ford’s motorsport activities, which has seen it end a long association with Formula 1 by selling the Jaguar team. Ford will continue to use the existing Focus RS in the WRC next year, while a new Focus RS – based on the new road-going version of the car, which will be available early in 2005 – will be adopted from 2006 onwards. No announcement has yet been made on who will drive the cars in either 2005 or 2006.

Director of Ford Team RS, Jost Capito, said that Ford’s commitment to the WRC was confirmation of the series’ strengths as a promotional tool, and that Ford’s continued involvement was in turn a boost to rallying’s continually rising profile.

“Ford’s long-term commitment to the WRC will provide a great boost to the sport,” he explained. “Ford has been involved in rallying since before the WRC was conceived. Our continuation is excellent news for the championship and emphasises just how much the sport has developed in recent years.

“Our review showed there is a strong business case for Ford’s continued involvement. The proposals from the FIA [world motorsport’s governing body] to reduce the costs of competing in the WRC, via revisions to the regulations, convinced us to continue long-term."

Capito also praised the work that M-Sport has done in building the team into a regular winner and championship-contender. “Since 1997, we have worked closely with M-Sport to develop a world-class rally team operating from world-class facilities at [team founder] Malcolm Wilson’s Dovenby Hall premises. We believe that the infrastructure is now in place for us to move forward and build a team capable of bringing world titles to Ford.”

Ford also announced that build and development of its Junior World Rally Championship contender - the Ford Fiesta Super 1600 - will be transferred to M-Sport to establish the team as Ford's centre for international rallying.

"We will continue to provide the Fiesta JWRC and Super 1600 cars for private teams," Capito said. "To ensure the Fiesta remains competitive and fulfils its full potential, M-Sport will take over immediate responsibility for the development of this programme and customer support. It will be fully integrated into Malcolm Wilson's activities to guarantee that our customer teams receive the best possible support for their Fiesta programmes."