M-Sport team principal Richard Millener has made it clear the team wants to continue working with Ford in the World Rally Championship.
M-Sport first ran Ford’s world rallying concern at the dawn of the World Rally Car era in 1997, making 2026 the 30th successive season the two companies have worked together.
However since 2013, Ford has not been a fully-fledged manufacturer in the WRC; instead offering M-Sport partial support to run a Fiesta and latterly the Puma at rallying’s top level.
Ford is returning to Formula 1 next year for the first time since 2004, partnering the Red Bull Powertrains division, is planning a Hypercar project in the World Endurance Championship in 2027 and currently has programs with the Mustang GT3 sportscar and of course the World Rally-Raid Championship (in collaboration with M-Sport).
It has not yet made any commitment to the WRC’s next set of technical regulations in 2027.
There have been some suggestions in the press that M-Sport could instead partner with Chinese company Lynk & Co, but appearing on DirtFish’s SPIN, The Rally Pod podcast, Millener affirmed that would only happen if there were no future possibilities with Ford.
He said: “The goal for us is to continue with Ford and to get back to a point where they want to be challenging for a championship. I think the automotive market is very difficult at the moment; honestly, it’s complete chaos for car manufacturers. Half of them switched to EV and were going in the future of EV. And then it was announced that the governments are all going to backtrack and allow combustion to come in and concentrate more on CO2 than electric.
“To suddenly go from an all-electric line up to the ability to have combustion back is very difficult for a lot of people, not just Ford, but right across the board. So it’s not been easy for them nor any car manufacturers, but actually I think personally it’s a huge positive for WRC and the fact that we knew there were constraints in terms of EV being in the sport, that’s very difficult to achieve.
“And I think if cars and car manufacturers have a tendency in an opening now to go back to more combustion engine cars, then we have a fantastic sport as a fit for them to come and play in. It could be that all of these pieces come together in the right time and we have a great future ahead of us, which I do believe will happen.
“But one thing clear is that Malcolm’s heart is with Ford and always has been, and he doesn’t want to move away from Ford. And that’s our number one goal,” Millener added.
M-Sport has worked with Ford for the past 29 WRC seasons
“If they don’t want to come back to the very top level and other manufacturers are around, as a business, of course we would have to consider [other options] because we need to continue as M-Sport, but we have such a legacy with them, you wouldn’t want to break any of that just on a whim that you might get a different manufacturer as such.
“Malcolm doesn’t actually own that many cars, believe it or not, but when he does buy cars, they’re always Fords. And I think that shows his allegiance to the brand and his, you know, the old saying of cut someone in half and you’d have blue within him. You know, that is Malcolm. And he’s so proud to lead M Sport and a link up to Ford and the fact that we have the link up across the Dakar program, it’s really important to him.
“A lot of people give Ford a hard time, but actually I think if you look at what they’re doing, they’re doing more motorsport than they’ve ever done before. So I would look at it completely opposite and give them a pat on the back for being so proactive in motorsport.
“OK we’re all a bit biased because we all love WRC, but there’s more than one person involved in discussions. We continue to support as we want, as we want to work with them and continue the legacy. And that’s the goal at the moment.”
To hear Millener’s full interview, where he also discusses his personal objectives in motorsport and M-Sport’s 2026 driver lineup, listen to SPIN, The Rally Pod via the player below or on your chosen podcast provider.
