M-Sport World Rally Team based in Dovenby, Cockermouth
Growing in size and stature since originally formed in 1996 M-Sport now operates a flourishing global motorsport business from the edge of the English Lake District National Park. Providing the engineering expertise behind an award-winning range of competition cars, the company has quickly become an industry leader with state-of-the-art facilities at home and winning performances around the globe.
Founded when former National and International British Rally Champion Malcolm Wilson OBE was selected to mastermind Ford’s assault on the FIA World Rally Championship, the company made its home in Cumbria. And while Wilson had the option to move the operation to Essex, he remained true to his roots – insisting that a global business could be run effectively and successfully from his native Cumbria. Wilson’s faith in his homeland was not unfounded, and the company has achieved considerable success on the stages and circuits of some of the world’s most acclaimed motorsport series.
Securing seven FIA World Rally Championship titles for Ford, M-Sport continue to produce winning machinery and have established a solid structure for competition research and development. The company was also responsible for Bentley’s return to racing as the luxury brand’s technical partner in GT3, and worked alongside Jaguar on the iPACE eTROPHY as part of Formula E’s support race structure.
Having moved into its Dovenby Hall headquarters near Cockermouth in 2000, M-Sport’s facilities have gone from strength to strength and construction of a new, state-of-the-art Evaluation Centre is almost complete. Housing a new 10,723 m2 workshop alongside a 2.5-kilometre test track designed to FIA standards, the multi-million-pound development is set to provide a unique centre of engineering excellence – where leaders in automotive technology can follow a concept from design to production on one exclusively-situated and expertly-equipped site.
M-Sport Managing Director, Malcolm Wilson OBE, said:
“It was always important for me to keep the business in Cumbria. First and foremost, it’s home, but I also never doubted that we could run a globally successful business from the county; and Cumbria has gone from strength to strength in recent years with a whole host of national and international manufacturing on the doorstep. We’ve attracted some of the world’s best engineers and technicians because of the lifestyle we can offer here.
And I only see the region growing in engineering relevance over the years to come – not least with our own Evaluation Centre which is set to provide a one-of-a-kind facility unique to the UK, where leaders in automotive technology can follow every aspect of a project from design to production on one exclusive site.”
