Ford has some image salvaging to do this year. The Ford Focus has promised much since it burst on to the world rally scene in 1999 but has not delivered enough.

For has spent a lot of money on the championship. It has an all-star driver line-up, and undoubtedly one of the best cars in the field. But somehow it does not come together.

The Focus was quick nearly everywhere last year, and it won rallies, but it was also more unreliable than it should have been, and not as competitive on some events as it needed to be.

The drivers also were far from blameless. Carlos Sainz seemed to lack confidence at the start of 2000, only coming alive in the last part of the year. And Colin McRae made too many crucial mistakes, as he always seems to do.

Uncertainty

Be that as it may, both drivers and the Ford team head into 2001 as title favourites.

Sainz has rediscovered his form and that, added with his enviable consistency, means he will be in the battle until the end of the season.

And McRae is determined to put the mistakes of the past behind him and win another title to add to the one he won with Subaru in 1995.

The team has also added Frenchman Francois Delecour to its driver strength. An ace on tarmac, he should put Ford in the running on rallies where it might have had less of a chance in the past, like Corsica and San Remo.

Ford has switched to Pirelli tyres from Michelin in 2000. That adds an extra twist of uncertainty, but there is no reason to believe that the car will be any less competitive as a result. Subaru, after all, do well enough on the Italian tyres.

Delecour, in fact, is predicting he can win the season-starting Monte Carlo Rally. It would certainly be the sort of start Ford needs.

If Ford can bring together all its many plus points, it can win the title. But that would mean it doing something it has not managed to do in the Focus era.