Ford: No regrets over Sardinia result
Ford team principal Malcolm Wilson says he stands by the decision not to issue team orders on Rally d'Italia in May - when he could have switched his drivers and given Mikko Hirvonen an extra two points
Had Wilson made the change, Hirvonen would have been champion following the results from Rally GB, which finished on Sunday.
But neither Wilson or Hirvonen have any regrets from this season. Hirvonen was 17 points behind Sebastien Loeb at the time.
"I have absolutely no regrets [about Rally d'Italia]," said Wilson. "At the time we felt that was the right decision for the team. If anybody thinks that was wrong, well okay, they're entitled to their opinion.
"We came here leading the world championship with one thing to do: to beat Sebastien Loeb. Even after Sardinia we never thought we'd be in that position. If I had my time again, I wouldn't change anything about Sardinia."
Wilson added that Jari-Matti Latvala's Italian win got the Finn's season back on track after a troubled start to the year which had included the Rally of Portugal crash in which Latvala thought he was going to die.
Wilson added: "There are lots of other things which you could look at and say were more significant: Jari's mistake in Poland [when he crashed on the final superspecial stage] would have taken points away from Sebastien - that's probably far more significant than Sardinia.
"The decision we took in Sardinia was needed at the time, we felt that would give Jari the confidence boost he needed. Look at the results since then and we have become a lot stronger team. We got ourselves into a position to fight for the manufacturers' championship, which after five rallies was looking like we had absolutely no chance."
Hirvonen, who scored four wins this season to end the year one point behind Loeb, said: "At least our team played it fair and square all year and I'm proud of that. There's no way we can change that anymore and I don't want to. In the end we both had the same chances when we came to this rally and he was faster. End of story."
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