David Holder competed in the 2018 FIA Junior World Rally Championship in one of 14 ‘controlled’ Ford Fiesta’s provided by M-Sport Poland. The JWRC is an ‘arrive and drive’ type category with all competitors competing in identical 1.0-litre turbocharged Ford Fiesta R2T cars prepared by 2017 drivers’ and manufacturers’ world champion team M-Sport at its Poland workshops. It is a cost-effective route into the WRC for young drivers such as Holder.
Founded in 1997 by Malcolm Wilson, M-Sport is now a global motorsport business based in the UK. It is well know for its involvement in the FIA World Rally Championship as a privately run ‘Ford’ team, particularly since the Blue Oval manufacturer withdrew from the WRC back in 2012.
M-Sport grew out of Malcolm Wilson Motorsport, originally founded in 1979 as Wilson grew his rallying career as a driver. It grew and became known for its development of the Ford Escort RS Cosworth in the early 90s. In 1994 the team won national titles in Italy, Portugal, the Middle East, and the UK.
It was at the end of 1996 that the Ford Motorsport company then selected Malcolm Wilson Motorsport to run the Ford team entry in the 1997 WRC with the new Ford Escort WRC. This brought about a name change to M-Sport as we know it today.
They are known for their development of the Ford Focus WRC that appeared in the 1998 season with Colin McRae but it wasn’t until 2006 that Wilson’s company took the manufacturers title for Ford. It had been 25 years since the manufacturer had achieved this success and a year later M-Sport again took the title.
They have employed drivers such as Mikko Hirvonen, Jari Matti-Latvala, Elfyn Evans, Ott Tänak, Mads Østberg and more recently Sebastien Ogier who won both the driver and manufacturer titles.
With Ogier now leaving for the Citroen WRC team in 2019, M-Sport are yet to name a full line up which is expected to take place at Rally Australia15-18 November.
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