Wilson: Fiesta S2000 will get better

M-Sport’s Ford Fiesta S2000, which has won five of the eight Super 2000 World Rally Championship events run so far this season, is set to benefit from a series of upgrades over the winter months, which company boss Malcolm Wilson believes will make the car even more competitive next year.

Speaking after watching Jari Ketomaa and Martin Prokop score a one-two finish with the Fiesta in the S-WRC section of Rally Japan earlier this month, Wilson said: “Considering it’s the first year for the car, the results have been pretty impressive. The great thing is all the drivers who drive the car think it’s fantastic and the positive thing is we’ll be launching some upgrades for next season, which will hopefully make the car even better.”

Although Wilson wouldn’t go into specifics he explained that some of the features of the Fiesta-based World Rally Car, currently under development by M-Sport in preparation for its debut in the World Rally Championship in 2011, would be transferred onto the S2000 derivative.

“What we’re learning through testing with the WRC [Fiesta] we can transfer back and hopefully it will be even more competitive next season,” said Wilson. “We’ll be announcing the details [of the upgrades] before the end of the season.”

Asked why the car had been so successful so soon, Wilson believed that his company’s experience had played a huge role.

“First of all it’s a great base car, the right size and Christian [Loriaux, M-Sport’s technical director] and the team have put all our WRC experience into it. It’s no different to any other business. You don’t build it up that quick overnight. It’s just the years of experience and knowledge we’ve got in the WRC that makes the difference. It’s our speciality and is where we concentrate our effort. That’s why we’ve got a car that seems to work everywhere.”

So far, M-Sport has sold 37 examples of the Fiesta to customers around the world for use in a variety of national and regional championship.

The S-WRC resumes on Rallye de France next week when Spanish Fiesta driver Xevi Pons, who is tied on points with Prokop at the top of the drivers’ standings, returns to action after missing the last round in Japan.