What would happen to all
the satellites revolving around Volkswagen's nucleus? What would become of its
world-champion driver Sébastien Ogier, and where would its high-profile sponsor
Red Bull go next?
Now we're looking
at the embodiment of that shift as the team has revealed the racing liveries
for its new Ford Fiesta WRC, complete (in Ogier's case) with that unmistakable
Red Bull livery.
M-Sport, is an independent
racing team that has enjoyed close collaboration with some major automakers. It
developed and campaigns the Continental GT3 for Bentley. It also ran Ford's WRC
effort until Dearborn pulled the plug in 2012, but still represents on the Blue
Oval on the rally circuit on an independent basis, developing the new Fiesta on
its own (albeit not without a measure of factory support).
The team revealed its new rally machine,
body-in-white, earlier this month, based on the new road-going Fiesta. Now it
is preparing to showcase its two cars in their full racing livery at the
Autosport International show, giving us this advance look.
Ogier's car (which he will share once again with
co-pilot Julien Ingrassia) sports the Red Bull livery that adorned their VW
Polo. The second car shared by Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja adopts a geometric
design similar to the camouflage which M-Sport put on the car while it was
undergoing development.
