M-Sport has reduced its Cumbrian facility to a skeleton staff, but while work on 2020 slows down the team has switched its focus to working on its 2022 World Rally Championship challenger.
DirtFish spoke to managing director Malcolm Wilson on Friday at the end of a week in which he was forced to send the majority of his 200-plus workforce home, as preventative measures increase to attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s horrendous,” said Wilson, “just horrendous. I haven’t made anybody redundant yet and that’s absolutely the last resort for me.
“As always, the absolute priority for me here is my workforce. The people who’ve gone home are on furlough [a leave of absence] and we’re in touch with them all.
“We want these people back in work as quickly as possible as soon as this is over. But that’s the main problem, we just don’t know when it’s going to end around the world.
“M-Sport’s a global business and we work with people all around the world and, right now, our thoughts are with all of those people and their families, wherever they are.
“These are unprecedented times and it’s so important we look after each other.”
Wilson has retained 54 staff at the Cockermouth base and has further staff working from home.
“Obviously we’re following all the government guidelines,” he said. “You’ve not seen anything like the social distancing we’ve got in place for the people still coming in – they’ve all got so much room, it’s like a ghost town.
“It’s not really possible to shut a company like this one down completely. We’ve still got orders coming in, there’s still some work going on on R5 shells and things like that. But the main work now is on the 2022 car and, obviously, with the Bentley [GT3] race program.
“If there is a positive, it’s the opportunity this is affording us to get on with the 2022 car and we’re doing that.
“On the race side, we had a 30-hour test planned for the Bentley early next month – that’s been postponed, but we’re still working on the preparation and planning for it.”
M-Sport Poland is still building and delivering Fiesta R2s.
M-Sport team principal Richard Millener added: “We’re trying to stay positive, we’re positive people and we’re looking at what we can do towards the future.
“Like Malcolm said, the 2022 car is the focus right now. We’re working towards the next event, the Safari Rally, but the reality is that we don’t know when we’ll be out again.
“What we have to be mindful of is that other parts of Europe could be up and running before us and we have to be ready to work with them and supply whatever’s needed.
“That said, we remain entirely in the hands of the government. Naturally, we’re following all government guidelines and the health and safety of the staff is absolutely paramount.”
