I'm getting a worrying feeling that next season's world rally championship might be as good as cancelled. The remaining two manufacturers, Ford and Citroën, are having an emergency meeting. Maybe they'll decide it's not worth carrying on with just the two of them. Or maybe they will carry on, who knows.
Although Ford are in deep shit, their rally team is backed by the Abu Dhabi tourism authority, and that money is safe unless... the Abu Dhabi tourism authority decide that a half-baked championship season won't provide them with the publicity that they thought they were going to get.
Maybe there will be a situation like in 2006 when Citroën pulled out, but the same technical team ran the cars under the Kronos banner. But at the moment where is the backing going to come from? Maybe the Abu Dhabi sheikhs will pay M-Sport directly to run the Ford team as a "Abu Dhabi / BP (Ford)" team. Or maybe not.
Plans that looked pretty solid only a couple of months ago have just disappeared into nothing. It's all very uncertain.
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Although Ford are in deep shit, their rally team is backed by the Abu Dhabi tourism authority, and that money is safe unless... the Abu Dhabi tourism authority decide that a half-baked championship season won't provide them with the publicity that they thought they were going to get.
Maybe there will be a situation like in 2006 when Citroën pulled out, but the same technical team ran the cars under the Kronos banner. But at the moment where is the backing going to come from? Maybe the Abu Dhabi sheikhs will pay M-Sport directly to run the Ford team as a "Abu Dhabi / BP (Ford)" team. Or maybe not.
Plans that looked pretty solid only a couple of months ago have just disappeared into nothing. It's all very uncertain.