François Delecour
François Delecour (born on 30 August 1962 in Hazebrouck, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) is a rally driver.

In the employ of Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 as a driver of the factory-fettled Ford Escort RS Cosworth

Ford Escort RS Cosworth

The Ford Escort RS Cosworth was a sports derivative of the Ford Escort. It was available from 1992-96 in very limited numbers.It was instantly recognisable due to its large "whale tail" rear spoiler...

, he finished as runner-up in drivers' standings in the 1993 World Rally Championship

World Rally Championship

The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...

 season. He was still driving for Ford by January 1994, when he won the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally

Monte Carlo Rally

The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...

 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.

After leaving Ford, he then acquitted himself in a subsequent stint for Peugeot

Peugeot

Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...

, 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 on asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 world championship level rallies in the two-litre kit-car classification. It culminated in his involvement in the opening years of the works Peugeot 206 WRC

Peugeot 206 WRC

Peugeot 206 WRC is a World Rally Car based on the Peugeot 206. It was used by Peugeot Sport, Peugeot's factory team, in the World Rally Championship from 1999 to 2003. The car brought Peugeot the manufacturers' world title three years in a row from 2000 to 2002...

 project, where amid much publicity he was to find himself, on the hard-surface rounds of the 2000 World Rally Championship season which Peugeot otherwise dominated, in conflict with Peugeot management and fellow French tarmac ace and team-mate, Gilles Panizzi

Gilles Panizzi

Gilles Panizzi is a French rally driver on the World Rally Championship circuit.Gilles was born in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, Alpes-Maritimes...

 at that year's San Remo Rally.

Delecour switched back to Ford for 2001. The Blue Oval's effort, however, was by now being masterminded not from long-time headquarters Boreham

Boreham

Boreham is a village and civil parish, in Essex, England. It is located approximately northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Chelmsford and parliamentary constituency of Saffron Walden.- History :...

, but by Malcolm Wilson

Malcolm Wilson (rally)

Malcolm Irving Wilson, OBE is a British former rally driver. He is the father of current World Rally Championship driver Matthew Wilson....

's M-Sport

M-Sport

M-Sport is a large and successful motorsport team based in Cockermouth, Cumbria in England. Formed in 1979 by former WRC driver Malcolm Wilson, and originally known as Malcolm Wilson Motorsport, the team has had varying success running cars in several rally championships...

 in Cumbria

Cumbria

Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...

, which ran a third, alternatively liveried Ford Focus WRC

Ford Focus WRC

The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for Rallye Sport and the WRC for World Rally Car, the car's FIA specification...

 for Delecour. A shunt, nearly crippling for co-driver Daniel Grataloup, on his final outing in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 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 to Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi

The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...

 to drive their still young first World Rally Car

World Rally Car

World Rally Car is a term used to describe racing automobiles built to the specification set by the FIA, the international motorsports governing body, and used to compete in the outright class of the World Rally Championship...

, he and Alister McRae

Alister McRae

Alister McRae is a Scottish rally driver, who competed in the World Rally Championship. He is the son of the five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and the younger brother of the late 1995 World Rally Champion, Colin McRae...

 being drafted in as replacements for both outgoing four-time World Champion, Tommi Makinen

Tommi Mäkinen

"Turbo" Tommi Antero Mäkinen , tied with Juha Kankkunen and behind Sébastien Loeb , and fifth in wins .He is a four-time World Rally Champion, a series he first won, and then successfully defended, continuously throughout 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999, on all occasions driving the Ralliart Mitsubishi...

 and his teammate Freddy Loix

Freddy Loix

Freddy Loix is a Belgian rally driver.Loix's career in motor sport began in karting at the age of 15...

.

Unfortunately, both he and McRae were to suffer as the Japanese marque's competitiveness continued to wane. During this time Delecour again suffered a massive shunt during that year's Rally Australia. This time the accident had effectively ended Grataloup's top line career due to injuries he sustained as a result of the accident. Delecour, despite his accident, would go on to compete at the next event in Great Britain. This event was noted as Delecour's Mitsubishi left the road in the middle of the event causing him to lose his temper at his replacement co-driver Dominique Savignoni. After a comparatively unsuccessful season, Mitsubishi announced a sabbatical from the series until 2004, effectively bringing Delecour's world championship career to a close.

After WRC career Delecour did rally-raid with SMG V8 buggy and some racing with Porsche 996 GT3 RS

Porsche 911 GT3

The Porsche 911 GT3 is a higher performance version of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is the latest in a line of high performance models, beginning with the 1973 911 RS...

. In 2011, 100th year of Monte Carlo rally, he returned to rallying with Peugeot 207 Super 2000 and finished on 5th place in Rallye Monte Carlo, which was part of IRC-Championship.

WRC victories

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	27° Rallye de Portugal	1993	Daniel Grataloup	Ford Escort RS Cosworth Ford Escort RS Cosworth The Ford Escort RS Cosworth was a sports derivative of the Ford Escort. It was available from 1992-96 in very limited numbers.It was instantly recognisable due to its large "whale tail" rear spoiler...
2	37ème Tour de Corse - Rallye de France	1993	Daniel Grataloup	Ford Escort RS Cosworth Ford Escort RS Cosworth The Ford Escort RS Cosworth was a sports derivative of the Ford Escort. It was available from 1992-96 in very limited numbers.It was instantly recognisable due to its large "whale tail" rear spoiler...
3	29° Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava (Rallye de España) Rally Catalunya The Rally Catalunya is a rally competition on the World Rally Championship schedule. Now held on the wide, smooth and sweeping asphalt roads around the town of Salou, Catalonia, Spain, it was previously held around the region of Costa Brava...	1993	Daniel Grataloup	Ford Escort RS Cosworth Ford Escort RS Cosworth The Ford Escort RS Cosworth was a sports derivative of the Ford Escort. It was available from 1992-96 in very limited numbers.It was instantly recognisable due to its large "whale tail" rear spoiler...
4	62ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo Monte Carlo Rally The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...	1994	Daniel Grataloup	Ford Escort RS Cosworth Ford Escort RS Cosworth The Ford Escort RS Cosworth was a sports derivative of the Ford Escort. It was available from 1992-96 in very limited numbers.It was instantly recognisable due to its large "whale tail" rear spoiler...