- François Delecour
WRC driver
Name = François Delecour
Caption =
Nationality = flagicon|France French
Years = 1984 - 2002
Teams =Ford ,Peugeot ,Mitsubishi
Races = 96
Championships = 0
Wins = 4
Podiums = 19
Stagewins = 214
Points = 326
First race = 1984Monte Carlo Rally
First win = 1993Rallye de Portugal
Last win = 1994Monte Carlo Rally
Last race = 2002Rally Great Britain François Delecour (born on 30 August 1962 in Cassell northern
France ) is a rally driver.In the employ of
Ford Motor Company as a driver of the factory-fettledFord Escort RS Cosworth , he finished as runner-up in drivers' standings in the 1993World Rally Championship season. He was still driving for Ford by January 1994, when he won the season-openingMonte Carlo Rally for the team. After this victory he was regarded as the title favourite, but injury in a road traffic accident forced him to miss most of the rest of the season [ [http://www.rallye-info.com/driverprofile.asp?driver=29 Francois Delecour - WRC Driver Profile] Rallye-Info.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-11] .After leaving
Ford , he then acquitted himself in a subsequent stint forPeugeot , piloting the French firm's array of various machinery for much of the rest of the 1990s and often continuing to make a points-scoring impact, particularly onasphalt world championship level rallies in the two-litrekit-car classification. It culminated in his involvement in the opening years of the worksPeugeot 206 WRC project, where amid much publicity he was to find himself, on the hard-surface rounds of the2000 World Rally Championship season which Peugeot otherwise dominated, in conflict with fellow French tarmac ace and team-mate,Gilles Panizzi .Delecour switched back to
Ford for 2001. The Blue Oval's effort, however, was by now being masterminded not from long-time headquartersBoreham , but by Malcolm Wilson'sM-Sport inCumbria , which ran a third, alternatively liveriedFord Focus WRC for Delecour. A shunt, crippling for co-driver Daniel Grataloup, on his final outing inAustralia threatened to marr his time at the team. But despite otherwise again proving a regular scorer, he was once again to change teams come the following year, this time toMitsubishi to drive their still young firstWorld Rally Car , he andAlister McRae being drafted in as joint replacements for outgoing four-time World Champion,Tommi Makinen .Unfortunately, both he and McRae were to suffer as the Japanese marque's competitiveness continued to wane. After a comparatively unsuccessful season, Mitsubishi announced a sabbatical from the series until 2004, effectively bringing Delecour's world championship career to a close.
WRC victories
:
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.