Ostberg gets private WRC Fiesta

Mads Ostberg will miss next week’s Monte Carlo Rally, but the Norwegian will return to the World Rally Championship in time for Rally Sweden next month.

Ostberg will drive a 2017-specification privately run Ford Fiesta WRC on 11 rounds of this year’s series, skipping Rally Mexico as he’s due to become a father for the first time in the week of the Leonbased rally.

Ostberg will join forces with Czech driver Martin Prokop, establishing a jointly funded team with the former Junior World Rally Champion. Prokop’s programme in another 2017 Fiesta is expected to start after Sweden.

The one-time world rally winner had always talked about the potential to return to his own team, according to his father Morten – team principal of the family squad.

Morten Ostberg told MN: “The plan is to do what we did in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, when we were running the car with our own Adapta team under the umbrella of M-sport. This year it looks like we will be even more independent, working with Martin Prokop’s team from the Czech Republic.”