Ford officially unveiled its 2011 World Rally Championship bid during a virtual launch conducted from its rally team's base in the UK yesterday

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The company’s European motorsport boss Gerard Quinn joined team chief Malcolm Wilson, technical head Christian Loriaux plus factory drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala for the unique event.

Wilson, who has masterminded Ford’s WRC campaign since 1997 and steered it to back-to-back manufacturers’ titles between 2006 and 2007 through his M-Sport organisation, was in bullish mood as he answered questions from international media during a conference call.

“It’s very, very exciting times for us here at M-Sport entering the championship with a new car and new technology,” said Wilson. “Some of the previous technology has been taken out of the car under the new regulations but the one thing that is consistent is that we’ve got the same drivers in Jari-Matti Latvala and Mikko Hirvonen who will start the season as equals with equal equipment.”

Wilson said his team’s preparations for the 2011 campaign, during which it has conducted more than 11,000 kilometres of testing with its all-new Fiesta RS WRC, means it is in “the best position ever” heading into a new season, even though he conceded there is still a lot of work to do to ready in time the nine Fiestas that will be in action on Rally Sweden next week.

“We’re not normally used to this amount of testing time,” said Wilson, who confirmed the car’s homologation has been delayed until the last possible moment to maximise its competitiveness in Sweden. “We’ve had the luxury of testing since the early part of last year. It doesn’t mean to say that everything will be perfect, but when you get a phone call from Jari-Matti saying the car is brilliant means a lot to me and the people here, who have put an incredible amount of effort into it.

“Christian and Anthony Brinkman, the chief designer, have reviewed every single item on the car and tried to optimise everything in terms of strength and weight and to improve the weight distribution and centre of gravity, which is all about achieving performance targets. We’re in the best position we’ve ever been in.”

Loriaux added: “We believe we have developed a great rally car, but we have no benchmark with which to compare it so we will only know how competitive we are at the end of the first proper stage in Sweden.”