Fornaris quits Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi Motors Motor Sports technical and managing director Mario Fornaris has announced that he is to leave the WRC team at the end of the month, citing personal reasons for the split.

Fornaris will remain in place until 30 June, and attend the forthcoming Acropolis Rally, in order to ensure the smooth hand-over of technical responsibilities, with MMSP president Isao Torii assuming the role of team principal and MD, and Roger Estrada taking on all on-event engineering and technical responsibility.

"It was a tough and enjoyable challenge to create a new engineering team, a new car and make it competitive in two-and-a-half years," Fornaris said, "I am proud of this early achievement and I would like to say thank-you to the team, and particularly to those who, even in the most difficult days, believed in the project. I am sad to leave, but I must be consistent with all my ideas in the long term. I am confident that MMSP's future is in skilled and experienced hands."

Fornaris joined MMSP in January 2003, and hands over responsibility for the future development of the Lancer WRC05 to Olivier Jansonnie, currently head of development at MMSP, who joined the team with Fornaris and has been responsible for the design of the current Lancer.

"This is Mario Fornaris' personal decision and we have to respect it," Torii said, "We must say thank-you for all his efforts with the development of the car and the restructuring of the team in the last two-and-a-half years. The current success of the Lancer WRC05 is largely due to his engineering experience and expertise."