M-Sport has confirmed testing of its Ford Ranger T1+ will continue this year, despite the decision not to run the car at Dakar in January.
The Saudi Arabian marathon remains very much in the car’s sights, but it’s come just too soon for Malcolm Wilson’s firm’s first off-road project.
Talking about the car M-Sport is developing jointly with Neil Woolridge Motorsport, Wilson told DirtFish: “Development is going very well. We had another really positive week in Dubai with the car, with Adrien [Fourmaux] driving and everything is on track.
“To be honest, I think we could make Dakar in January, but we’re not 100% sure we can do it the way it needs to be done. Like the rest of the world, we’re having some supply chain issues – we understood these would be a factor and that was why we didn’t make any firm commitments to Dakar.
“We continue to test and develop the car through this year, the program for that [development] remains absolutely on track and one thing is absolutely sure, we’ll get there and this will be one heck of a car when we do!”
