Matthew Wilson

Nationality:British Date of Birth:29 Jan 87 Car:Ford Fiesta RS WRC Team:Go Fast Energy World Rally Team Co-driver:Scott Martin WRC Debut:Rally GB 2004 Website:www.m-sport.co.uk Career Highlights 2011: Seventh in World Rally Championship 2010: Seventh in World Rally Championship 2009: Seventh in World Rally Championship 2008: Tenth in World Rally Championship 2007: 11th in World Rally Championship. Scores career-best fourth in Japan 2006: Makes full-time WRC switch. Scores first point in Argentina 2005: Joins the British motorsport federation’s Rally Elite training scheme. Recovers from leg injuries to finish Rally GB in 15th overall 2004: Third in British Rally Championship. Finishes 13th on WRC debut in Great Britain Career Summary Matthew Wilson started his competition career in circuit racing, firstly in the T-Cars saloon training series before he switched to Formula Renault alongside a certain Lewis Hamilton. He won his first rally, albeit as a co-driver to father Malcolm Wilson, in 2003 before he took his turn behind the wheel in 2004 as a 17-year-old. After finishing third in the British championship that year, Wilson looked set to achieve more success in 2005 only for a huge accident on the Rally of Wales to leave him and co-driver Scott Martin with serious injuries. Wilson’s return on the Trackrod Rally netted an emotional win and served as the launchpad to a full world championship campaign in 2006 in a 2005-spec Focus run by his father’s M-Sport team. With backing from the Stobart Group as part of a five-year development programme, Wilson, having just turned 20, became the youngest driver to score points in a WRC event (eighth overall in Argentina). He also became the youngest driver to win a stage at world level (the Cordoba Stadium Super Special, also in Argentina). His 2007 campaign ended with a flurry of points finishes including a career-best fourth in Japan, seventh in Ireland and sixth in Great Britain. Wilson maintained his consistency during the 2008 season but also wound up the pace, ending the year 10th in the final drivers’ standings with 15 points. Wilson finished 11 out of the 12 rallies he started in 2009 to claim seventh in the championship. He was fifth in Cyprus, Argentina and Poland and would have been fifth in Portugal too, had it not been for a penultimate stage retirement in Portugal when his clutch broke while he tried to rejoin the road after going off. He was seventh again in 2010 when he divided his time between competing on all 13 rounds and helping to develop Ford’s new-for-2011 Fiesta RS WRC, a role he performed on the Fiesta R2 and Super 2000 examples in previous seasons. A regular point-scorer in 2011, Wilson emulated his career-best finish of fourth on Rally Australia.