Juha Kankkunen by then lost the title to Mäkinen. Kankkunen stayed with Ford for the 1998 season with Belgian driver Bruno Thiry as his new teammate, after Sainz had opted to re-join Toyota. Ford was already moving resources into developing the new Ford Focus WRC and the team's last year with the Escort WRC was winless. Kankkunen drove the car on the podium on seven occasions, and both Ford and Kankkunen finished fourth in their respective championships. For the 1999 season, Ford signed the Subaru World Rally Team star Colin McRae and Kankkunen moved to replace him at Subaru. Kankkunen's first year
Škoda Motorsport him win, at least he won the Colin McRae IRC Trophy. Until the final season of IRC in 2012, Škoda Motorsport was the most successful manufacturer with a total of 27 points, winning the rallying series in 2010-2012. Since 2013, When the two competing series were merged, it continued to compete in the European Rally Championship. The team had competed as a manufacturer in the World Rally Championship between 1999 and 2005. Škoda Motorsport won the WRC-2 with the Škoda Fabia R5 in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Škoda Motorsport drivers won with Škoda Fabia S2000 the European Rally Championships in