I thought it. I knew it. Mark Rushbrook said it.
Monday afternoon was one to remember. DirtFish had been invited to an embargoed news conference to discuss Ford’s return to the World Rally Championship. We were among a very privileged few.
Offering background, Ford Europe president Jim Baumbick talked about how the company’s European intentions would center aound five new models in the next few years, he talked about emotion, unlocking emotion, heritage, legacy and race-to-road strategies.
All very nice.
Then he paused, and said the words.
“So, the real exciting news that I wanted to share with everybody is Ford Racing will be returning to the FIA World Rally Championship as a full factory team from 2028.”
Genuinely, I caught my breath.
Handing the mic to Ford Racing global director Rushbrook, Mark called it absolutely right.
“I actually had goosebumps when you made that statement – we’ve talked about it internally, and when you talk about it outside, it’s exciting!”
Goosebumps.
It was absolutely the same in Sardinia a few days later when M-Sport team principal Richard Millener spoke for the first time in public about the news. It was impossible not to detect the emotion in his voice as he talked of the ceaseless work which had gone on behind the scenes in the last 14 years. The realization of this dream was the antidote to Ford’s nightmare departure in 2012.
Announcing this news to the public on the Italian island does, indeed, bring the story full circle. I was in Sardinia in 2012 when the news of Ford’s departure was announced. It had been talked about, but still it came like the biggest punch in the stomach – not least because that punch landed just a couple of weeks after the news of Mini’s exit, too.
Watching the Blue Oval-badged folk work through that week wasn’t the best. Even worse came a couple of weeks later when, at the season finale in Catalunya, we assembled to listen to Malcolm Wilson sign off on the last 15 years of his life – the years since he took over as the man in charge of Ford’s WRC effort at the start of 1997.
MW’s always been an emotional chap and this moment was no exception.
Cast that sadness against the absolute joy of Thursday in Alghero. Ford. Is. Back.
It’s been a fairly weird couple of days as we’ve planned and built content behind the scenes, pretending to the outside world that there’s nothing going on – and now’s as good a time as any to apologize for all the messages I’ve had to ignore as chatter has grown louder and louder about something coming on Thursday…
Ford has always belonged in rallying. Always. The Escort, the Sierra, the Focus, take your pick of car and take your pick of the heroes: Mikkola, Vatanen, McRae, Sainz – these are our cars and our heroes.
But for Ford to be back, it had to be on different terms. Now more than ever, there had to commercial sense in coming to the World Rally Championship, the business case had to stronger than ever. And listening to Baumbick, that’s very much the case.
Just as it was with the likes of the Lotus Cortina, the Sierra Cosworth or any flavour of RS, Ford is ready to build the cars we want to drive. His quote about not building toasters on wheels is gold. And utterly relevant.
In a world where cars are increasingly being viewed as white goods, Baumbick, Rushbrook and the rest of the glorious Ford workforce have recognized there’s still no replacement for displacement.
There was no shortage of words of encouragement on Monday afternoon, but it was these words from Baumbick that really resonated.
“What I love,” he said, “about the powerhouse that Mark [Rushbrook, Ford Racing global director] has put together is [that] he takes it and he puts it on the absolute extreme, makes it better, and then we wire it right back into the soul of every product that we sell.”
We wire it right back into the soul of every product we sell.
Hallelujah to that.
And welcome home.
