Jost Capito Director, Ford Team RS Jost leads the organisation within Ford's Product Development group which combines the Special Vehicle Engineering and Ford Racing units. He was previously director of SVE and before joining Ford in October 2001, was chief operating officer for the Sauber Formula One team. His motorsport career began in endurance motorcycle racing and motocross in his late teens. He won several titles in these disciplines and took part in the Paris-Dakar Rally across the Sahara Desert , winning the truck category in 1985. After graduating from Munich technical university he joined the BMW Motorsport GmbH in the city. After four years as development engineer for their performance engines, he moved to Porsche AG to oversee the organisation of its various championship campaigns. He then became head of motorsport organisation but after a year went to Sauber, initially to build up the powertrain division and later to administer its racing operations. He took over responsibility for Ford's rally programme in 2003.
Malcolm Wilson Team Director Malcolm has more than 20 years' experience of rallying at world championship level, much of it with Ford. As a driver he won two British national titles in the late 1970s and achieved a long-held ambition by winning the British international crown in 1994, all at the wheel of Escorts. He drove for three factory teams in the world championship and spent several years as Ford's chief test driver, developing new rally cars. Under his guidance M-Sport has become one of the world's leading private teams with a string of international titles and rally wins to its credit, including 18 event victories at world championship level. As director of the BP-Ford World Rally team at its magnificent Dovenby Hall headquarters in the heart of the English Lake District, Malcolm has responsibility for Ford's world rally activities, including the development of the Fiesta Junior World Championship car, for a tenth season.
Christian Loriaux Technical Director Christian joined the team in the newly created role of technical director at the beginning of December 2001. The experienced Belgian heads the 15-strong engineering department responsible for the development of the Focus RS World Rally Car at M-Sport. Christian's motorsport career started in 1991 when he joined Banbury-based Prodrive as a design engineer. He became chief engineer there in 1998 and was responsible for the car which took Richard Burns to the world title in 2001. His decision to join Ford was regarded as a major coup for the squad. The radical and highly praised 2003 Focus RS WRC was his first all-new car for the team. Christian was rarely seen on world championship events in 2005, devoting the majority of his time to leading his design and engineering team at Dovenby Hall in developing Ford's 2006 Focus RS WRC challenger.
LOGISTICS
John 'Milly' Millington Co-ordination Manager Without Milly, the team would literally not move! His three person department co-ordinates everything from flights, ferries, accommodation, air and sea-freight, containers, personnel and vehicle movements to fuel supply, as well as placing the team's official event entry. John is a former co-driver and won Britain's road rally championship in 1981 and 1985 with Ron Beecroft, against the likes of Colin McRae's former co-driver, Nicky Grist. He joined Ford in 1992 and his expertise and knowledge of the logistics of world championship rallying is highly valued when it comes to making on-the-spot decisions during events. John works closely with rally organisers and officials across the world to ensure that the team's logistics run smoothly and efficiently. His is the voice in regular radio contact with the team's drivers and co-drivers during rallies.
ENGINEERING
Carl Goodman Test and Development Engineering Manager Carl monitors the performance of the Focus RS rally cars on events and plans the essential maintenance work carried out to keep the cars at peak performance. Carl's motorsport career began in South Africa where he worked for a company designing high-powered single seater and touring car racing vehicles. He returned to Britain in 1995 as a race engineer for Peugeot Sport UK on its British Touring Car programme before joining Ford's world rally championship team in 1997. This season Carl will continue to work closely with Christian Loriaux on the test and development of the 2006 car.
Mathias Aubespin Event Engineer for Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen Mathias joined M-Sport in May 2002 after completing a Masters degree in Motorsport Engineering and Management at Cranfield University in Britain . Originally from Nice, he completed his degree in mechanical engineering at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers, one of the leading French mechanical engineering schools. At Cranfield he undertook his thesis project with Nissan Motorsport where he carried out suspension optimisation work for their Paris Dakar and ETCC Super Production cars and was credited as being a major contributor to Tomy Rustad's maiden win in the ETCC Super Production class at Nurburgring in 2001. He spent 2005 engineering Toni Gardemeister's car and working on the test and development programme of the 2006 car.
Chris Williams Event Engineer for Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen Chris has been involved in motorsport since leaving college 14 years ago. Starting as a mechanic with EARS Motorsport (Escort and Rally Spares) in Cheshire , England , he worked for both their TVR Tuscan racing team as well as their many European based rally projects. The opportunity to work for a world rally team saw him take a year out in 1994 to work for Ford Racing at Boreham, before returning to EARS for a further two years. In 1997 he joined M-Sport to work on the newly formed customer programme, providing support to many of the company's top customer teams. The Englishman had full engineering responsibility for Markko Märtin's programme for three years. He spent 2005 engineering Roman Kresta's car as well as developing the Fiesta GpN car.
Chris Gray Event Engineer for Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen Chris has been working at M-Sport for five years. He started his career in motorsport with Gordon Spooner Engineering during a three year degree course at Brunel University in London , working on the British Rally Championship. After graduating in 1999 with a BA in Engineering, Chris continued to work for GSE covering world championship recces and rallies. He moved to M-Sport for the 2000 season as a test and event engineer. In 2002 he was a senior event engineer on tests and rallies with responsibility for Colin McRae's car, switching his attentions to François Duval for 2003 and 2004. He shared responsibility for Roman Kresta's car early in 2005 before switching to Toni Gardemeister's Focus for the second half of the year.
George Black Tyre Engineer George plays a vital role in the team advising drivers of available tyre options and can often be seen working furiously to add vital cuts at the last minute. He started his career at club level in the early 1980s preparing Group B cars and managing a rally preparation business. As well as working with various customer programmes for Malcolm Wilson since 1984, he has worked with Mohammed Ben Sulayem in the world championship and Alister McRae when he won the British Championship in 1994. In 1996 he became self-employed and when offered a contract on Ford's world championship programme at the end of that year, George didn't hesitate in renewing his links with Wilson . His knowledge and skills are held in the highest regard throughout the world championship.
Norman SmithCar Controller for Marcus Grönholm and Timo Rautiainen Norman began as a truck fitter at Ford's competition department at Boreham before becoming a rally technician. After 10 years at the Essex-based company he joined Malcolm Wilson Motorsport in 1993 and works on a freelance basis, preferring to spend his time between events with his wife and children on his farm in Essex . He spent three seasons responsible for seven technicians and the Ford Focus RS WRC of Markko Märtin on all 16 rounds of the championship, and also played a key role in the reconnaissance team which supports the drivers during the practice period. Norman 's experience and knowledge was used during 2005 to assist Roman Kresta.
Keith 'Skally' Adlard Car Controller for Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen At the age of 16, Skally began his career in motorsport working for RED Motorsport. After two-and-half years he moved to work with amateur driver Pete Littler and took responsibility for the car in which Littler won the BTRDA championship in Britain . He has spent eight years at M-Sport working as a car builder both in the workshop and on WRC events. In 2002 he was responsible for the WRC engines being installed into the rally cars while on the long haul events he took charge of the team's on-event equipment from the moment it arrived in the country to when it was loaded back into the containers to move onto its next destination. In 2003, he was fully responsible for the car of Mikko Hirvonen. In 2004 he worked with François Duval and in 2005 with Toni Gardemeister. He will renew his links with Hirvonen and work with him again throughout the 2006 season.
ON-EVENT SUPPORT
Phil Short Sporting Advisor One of world rallying's most experienced managers, Phil has 17 international victories to his name as a co-driver, as well as two British international titles, and co-drove for Malcolm Wilson on British championship rallies in 1982 and 1983. He has amassed 55 world rally victories in management and stepped down as team manager at Mitsubishi at the end of 2000. Phil co-drove for John Taylor back in 1977 in a Ford Escort and renewed his links with Ford in 2001 as on-event Sporting Adviser working alongside Malcolm Wilson and John Millington, advising on strategic decisions, tactics and weather.
Mick Maunder Head Chef At the age of 16, Mick studied in his home town of Blackpool and qualified with a City and Guilds in catering. His first job was at the Imperial Hotel in Blackpool , where he catered for the rich and famous, including private dinners for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In 1989 he left the Imperial as a Sous Chef to take up the position of Head Chef at the Savoy Hotel in Blackpool . Three years later Mick decided to change the way he worked - setting up the hospitality service for the TVR Sportscar team - and hasn't looked back. Having worked with BMW Motorsport, Porsche, Leyland Daf Truck Racing, Suzuki and Ducati Superbike teams, the BP-Ford squad was in no doubt as to who it needed to handle the catering for the team, media and guests around the world.
TESTING
Roman Kresta Test Driver Twenty-nine-year old Kresta began his career in rallying as a mechanic for a local team, before making his competition debut in 1994 – finishing 14th on the Horacka Rally Trebic in his native Czech Republic . The talented Czech driver then went on to win the Group A 1400cc title in the national series, the Formula 2 title in the European Zone Championship and the Formula 2 national championship. Third place on the Bettega Memorial Rallysprint in Bologna at the end of the 2000 season, at the wheel of a factory supported Octavia WRC, enabled Roman to make his mark at international level. He made his WRC debut at the wheel of a Jolly Club-prepared Focus WRC on the Acropolis Rally 2001 while competing in the Czech national series with Skoda Motorsport. He has since competed on the WRC for Skoda Motorsport and Bozian Racing. In 2005 he was an official BP-Ford driver at the wheel of a works Focus RS WRC and finished eighth in the WRC.
Peter Martin Test Team Co-ordinator For Peter, rallying is both his profession and his hobby. He started out at the age of sixteen as a mechanic in his native Scotland before getting his dream job at M-Sport in 1997. He spent seven years working in roles in the parts department, as a buyer for the Escort and Focus RS World Rally Cars and for the engineering department. In February 2004 he moved into a co-ordination role and hasn't looked back. He has co-ordinated M-Sport customer teams, assisted John Millington with on-event logistics, carried out gravel note duties for Markko Märtin and Matthew Wilson and a weather crew role on WRC events. He now spends the majority of the time co-ordinating WRC tests. Away from work, Martin also enjoys co-driving and won the 2005 Roger Albert Clark Rally with Mark Higgins
HOSPITALITY
Matt Steel Hospitality Manager Matt joined M-Sport in July 2004, taking on responsibility for the BP-Ford team's hospitality programmes. He spent the previous seven years working in corporate event management, conference organising, hospitality and sports marketing with high profile companies such as Brands Hatch, Whitbread and PRISM, where he worked with clients including Ford Motor Company, Jaguar Racing and Siemens. In his first full season with the team, he's looking forward to the challenge of ensuring that BP-Ford World Rally Team's hospitality service caters for the varied needs of sponsors, VIPs, media and supporters in the remotest parts of the world, while splitting his time between M-Sport and the Ford TeamRS department in Essex .
MEDIA RELATIONS
Oksana Polovaya Ford of Europe Communications & Public Affairs Oksana has been responsible for m otorsport and performance road vehicles, including TeamRS, within Ford of Europe's communications and public affairs department since 2005. She is originally from Kiev in Ukraine and was educated in graphic design and economics. She joined Ford public affairs in 1998. Since than she has worked in different PR roles, including representation in Eastern European markets and responsibility for small car communications strategy. She is based at Ford of Europe's head office in Cologne .
Media Service BP- Ford World Rally Team Media Service The BP-Ford World Rally Team Media Service is based at Ford's Gaydon site in the UK . The two-person operation liaises closely with the rally team, Ford National Sales Companies and media around the world to enhance the image of the team. It provides full media information both on and off-event, organises media visits to rallies and the team's UK base, facilitates interviews with senior managers and controls media access to the drivers and co-drivers. The service is operated by former newspaper journalist Mark Wilford, now in his tenth year with the team, and the highly experienced Georgina Baskerville. Mark is based in the manufacturers' room on world rallies while Georgina controls the media operation in the service area.
