A 12 months in the past, M-Sport founder Malcolm Wilson was an spectator, eager to regulate what his firm was about to embark on over the subsequent 12 months.
Because the forty seventh version of the Dakar Rally got here to an in depth final Friday, he stood beneath Mattias Ekström and Emil Bergkvist on the end podium; the Swedish duo having simply secured third place on the workforce’s maiden voyage within the traditional rally raid.
“You’ll be able to think about, we’re all very, very comfortable,” Wilson mentioned. “Clearly, we had a giant ambition, however to get on the rostrum for the primary time, we’re very comfortable. We’ve actually learnt rather a lot and we’re wanting ahead to subsequent 12 months.”
Ford’s first full manufacturing facility assault on the Dakar obtained off to a tough begin as workforce chief Carlos Sainz suffered heavy harm after rolling his automobile on the second stage. He was pressured out on security grounds with a broken roll cage.
The identical day, team-mate and compatriot Nani Roma suffered a blown engine. All appeared quite gloomy at M-Sport.
“Dropping Carlos was a deflating second, however we knew Nani might keep on and we knew that we might use that as a productive subsequent week,” mentioned Wilson, workforce principal of M-Sport’s Dakar venture.
“It was powerful as a result of Carlos and Nani’s points occurred on the identical time, which signifies that successfully you might be down to 2 automobiles within the race. [But] I’ve to take my hat off to Nani for the assist position that he’s carried out and the way he simply did it with no questions requested.”