Ott Tanak signs with M-Sport Ford for WRC 2023
7th December 2022Ott Tanak is set to join M-Sport Ford ahead of the World Rally Championship’s 2023 season after the Estonian left Hyundai at the end of 2022.
Following Craig Breen and James Fulton’s move to Hyundai Motorsport at the end of the 2022 season, Tanak and his co-driver Martin Järveoia is set to keep Ford at full strength going into the new year.
The announcement, confirming Tanak’s move to Ford, ended all speculation as to where the Estonian would end up as he finished the 2022 season runner-up to Toyota’s Kalle Rovanepera.
However, this will not be Tanak’s first appearance for the M-Sport team as he last represented them in 2017. During that season, the team snatched the WRC manufacturer’s title with seven different podium finishes and two wins in Rally Italia Sardegna and Rallye Deutschland.
It is believed that Tanak will lead the teams’ charge to the front of the table, following a below-par performance in 2022.
The Blue-Oval team only managed to finish the year in third place, in the team standings, behind both Toyota (P1) and Hyundai (P2) as they struggled to get to grips with their M-Sport Ford Rally1 Puma.
According to reports, M-Sport Managing Director, Malcolm Wilson has already confirmed that the pairing have already had the chance to test out the Rally1 Puma at their Greystoke Forest test facility.
Across the 2022 season, Ford started off well as they took the first win of the season in Monte-Carlo by the hands of Sebastien Loeb – after Sebastien Ogier’s (Toyota) misfortunes in the dying stages.
However, the team failed to materialize on that performance and slumped to third in the table – 268 points adrift of 2022 Champions, Toyota – and only beating Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT’s NG team by 120 points.
That’s all for the article; Ott Tanak signs with M-Sport Ford for WRC 2023!
What do you think of Tanak’s move to M-Sport Ford? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
