Anthony Warmbolds account of 3 years with M Sport in WRC

[300KPH]

Anthony gives a pretty straight up account of spending over 2 million a year for 3 years running as a semi privateer with the company responsible for Fords WRC effort. He is only 32 now and retired but some of the rally enthusiasts on this site will remember him running in the WRC from 2003 through to the end of 2005.

He seems somewhat bitter about the whole experience, he and his father seemed to put a lot of trust in certain people only to be bled dry in the whole process. I think he would admit he never had the pace of an Ogier or a latvalla but he did want to try. Of course he could have stopped spending at any point but was semi tied into this 3 year deal by the sounds of it.

I would say have a read of the link, which brings you to part 1 of his blog, the rest can be navigated down the right hand side of the page. He has only being writing about his experiences since April so have a read before it gets taken down or changed.

http://wrcbehindthestages.blogspot.com/2011/04/cha...

[P I Staker]

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

[Streps]

"WRC drivers should have equal machinery, within their respective teams. Let the drivers make the difference"
He's right.

After those experiences he deserves to be slightly bitter.

[MrTom]

He seems incredibly naive, taking into account he mentions his father used to be a driver, how did he not question the cars spec when purchasing it? Everyone knows the best kit is kept for the factory if they compete, this is true in every sport.

[EDLT]

A good read, I wonder how much of it still goes on. He did mention that the privateers were very fast in Sweeden this year, and have got slower and less reliable since.

[Jerry Can]

interesting read. Not at all suprised.

It makes me have to consider a couple of things, Matt Wilson has a small budget but is given the 'rich privateers' parts as his car is generally quite reliable (nepotism). I suspect that a good proportion of Wilson Jnr's lack of speed is down to the car, but not all of it. Henning is in an even worse position and probably explains why Petter didn't take the Ford route and why Henning keeps getting beat by Wilson. Indeed I suspect that as the Citroen team is a proper works team this kind of shenanigans is less likely.

Achim Warmbold really should have known better.

I think the points about the privateers in Sweden and how they have subsequently gone is correct.
M-sport probably barely covers its costs on the works program so makes its money through the privateers. And this is a simple income v expenditure exercise. The less money you have the older the parts are. Having said that I'd be after my money back if I could prove that the preparation was not up to standard.


Having said all that it's nothing new, but if you are after a customer deal in the WRC better go French or German/British.

[ArnageWRC]

It's a good blog, and hardly a surprise. Ford/M-Sport is not a Full Factory/works/Manufacturer team, as Citroen is. Also, Ford put very little money into the effort, so M-Sport need to sell customer cars, as well as sponsorship from Abu Dhabi, to run their WRC effort.
One exists to win Rallies/WRC's, the other exists to make money to run their WRC challenge. Which one wins most of the time???

If i had the money, i wouldn't be going to M-Sport for my WRCar.

BMW-Prodrive-Mini will be similar to Ford - a customer programme to provide finance. It will be interesting to see if Mini get a sponsor in time for Sardegna this weekend. However, I'm sure we all wish them luck on their debut in the WRC. They and the sport need it. Also, it is expected that VW will announce their WRC programme in Italy. Should be a good weekend for the sport!!!

[ZeeTacoe]

MrTom said:

He seems incredibly naive, taking into account he mentions his father used to be a driver, how did he not question the cars spec when purchasing it? Everyone knows the best kit is kept for the factory if they compete, this is true in every sport.

I thought the idea (in rally as well as other sports with customer cars,bikes,etc) was that the factory team always got the new shiny widget first and generally had a few races with the advantage after which the widget filters down to the customer cars.

[egomeister]

ZeeTacoe said:

I thought the idea (in rally as well as other sports with customer cars,bikes,etc) was that the factory team always got the new shiny widget first and generally had a few races with the advantage after which the widget filters down to the customer cars.

It doesn't always work like that. Sometimes customer spec will be different to works for reasons of cost rather than performance - a customer is unlikely to want to pay for parts if they wear out after every leg, and there is an alternative available that will last a couple of events.

Having had a read of the blog it does seem like the relationship wasn't handled as well as it could have been from either end - makes for interesting reading now though!