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Østberg wants more from his Fiesta RS

Mads Østberg believes M-Sport must improve the performance of its Ford Fiesta RS if he is to challenge other manufacturer drivers.

The Norwegian, who re-joined M-Sport this year after two seasons at Citroën, finished fifth in Argentina last weekend after an incident-free run.

After the rally Østberg acknowledged that he had hoped for more in Argentina and that something was lacking from his performance.

Asked whether it was driver or car related, Østberg said: "That's a difficult question to answer, but in my opinion we need more from the car to be more competitive with VW, Hyundai and Citroën when they come back in Portugal."

Østberg's links with the Fiesta RS go back to 2011, when he began a three-year stint driving for the Adapta World Rally Team and later the Qatar M-Sport WRT.

"I've done many rallies and I know when l'm good and when I'm bad," he added. "I did some good stages this rally but we were far off."

"I had the same feeling when we left Mexico and Sweden too. We have done a very, very good rally but we are not competitive at all. Either I'm missing out big time on someting with the Fiesta or we need to work," he said.
M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson described his team's Argentina performance as 'disappointing' and pledged to investigate his driver's concerns.

"We know that Mads is capable of more and, if you look at the times of Ott [Tänak], we know that the car is too. Mads is driving well, but the times aren't there so we need to understand his issues and work to find a solution before Portugal," he said.

Zdroj: wrc.com