Ogier and M-Sport return to battle

There will be no more surprise from Tom Thumb. The new season that begins erases the previous one. Starting with the victory of Sébastien Ogier at Monte-Carlo 2017 who could not have better launched his global campaign at the wheel of a car that he was discovering and which was the latest in the news WRC.

This year, no one is heading into the unknown, everyone knowing their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as the level of their opponents. The Ford Fiesta WRC proved to be very consistent, relatively reliable and quite efficient on all surfaces. It was perhaps not the most successful, but it undoubtedly offered the best compromise.

Isn't that the first quality required of a luxury car? rally that of being able to face all terrains, rough, brittle or rolling, and of being easy to drive on the slippery asphalt of a Monte-Carlo, the snow of Sweden, the dirt of most rounds of the calendar or the very particular bitumen of the German rally?

With five victories on the clock acquired by its three crews (Monte-Carlo and Portugal for Ogier, Sardinia and Germany for Thank you, et Grande-Bretagne pour Evans. Ndlr), le team M-Sport a réalisé une saison exceptionnelle en 2017 en décrochant les titres mondiaux Pilotes et Constructeurs.

The difficulty will be to reproduce, this year, the same copy taking into account that only two drivers, Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans, will be racing full-time, compared to three last season.

Find all the issues of the 2018 season in our WRC Guide in issue 2148 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.