Juha Kankkunen - Career - 1997-98: Ford

1997-98: Ford

Halfway through the 1997 season, Kankkunen joined the Ford Motor Company factory team to replace a disappointing Armin Schwarz. Joining the M-Sport-run team too late to challenge for the title himself, Kankkunen's role was to support Ford and his teammate Carlos Sainz in their title fights. He started well by leading his second event with the team, the Acropolis Rally in Greece, until having to drop behind Sainz due to a team order. Kankkunen went on to finish only seconds behind Sainz also in Indonesia and New Zealand. In his home rally in Finland, he lost the win to the defending world champion, Mitsubishi's Tommi Mäkinen, by only seven seconds. This is still the narrowest winning margin in the history of the event. A fourth runner-up spot followed in the season-ending RAC Rally, now ahead of the Spaniard who had 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.