M-Sport had been responsible for running the works Ford World Rally Team since 1997. As a complementary structure, a separately entered satellite squad was created to provide a stepping stone for promising drivers and an additional presence on the entry list. With Stobart Group signing as title sponsor, the team debuted in 2006 under the Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team name and was known informally as the Stobart Ford World Rally Team throughout its existence.
The team made its debut at the 2006 Monte Carlo Rally with Matthew Wilson and Pieter Tsjoen. Wilson competed in all 16 rounds of the championship. Other drivers during the year included Luis Perez Companc, Kosti Katajamaki, Jari-Matti Latvala, Juan Pablo Raies, and Andreas Mikkelsen. Latvala's fourth place at the Wales Rally GB represented the team's best individual result of the season. With 44 points, Stobart finished fifth in the manufacturers' standings.
Latvala and Wilson were joined by Henning Solberg for 2007, with the three competing in all 16 rounds. Solberg took the team's first podium by finishing third in Norway and repeated the result at Rally Japan. Latvala also led three rallies during the year — Rally d'Italia Sardegna, Rally Finland, and Rally Japan. The team finished fourth in the manufacturers' standings with 81 points, narrowly missing third place after Latvala suffered technical problems at the season-ending Wales Rally GB.
For 2008, Latvala was promoted to the BP Ford World Rally Team and replaced by Gigi Galli, while Wilson and Solberg continued. Galli finished third at the Swedish Rally. Francois Duval drove a fourth Stobart car at the Monte Carlo Rally, finishing fourth, and returned for Rallye Deutschland where he again finished third as the leading Ford driver. Galli suffered an injury in a crash that ended his 2008 season. Duval deputised across several subsequent rounds. The sister Munchi's Ford World Rally Team, also run by M-Sport, shared resources and at times exchanged driver entries with Stobart during the season. Valentino Rossi drove for the team as a guest entry at the Wales Rally GB.
Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson were joined at the start of the season by Urmo Aava, who left after two rounds. Solberg scored third-placed finishes in Argentina and Poland. Krzysztof Holowczyc drove a third car in Poland, finishing sixth. The team finished third in the manufacturers' standings behind the Ford and Citroen factory teams. Solberg and Wilson finished sixth and seventh in the drivers' standings respectively.
Wilson and Solberg returned for 2010. A notable addition for the opening Rally Sweden was Finnish entrepreneur Mattias Therman, who paid for Stobart to enter two extra cars — one for himself and one for retired world champion Marcus Gronholm. Gronholm showed strong pace but could only finish 21st due to mechanical problems. Over the season, numerous guest drivers appeared alongside the core pairing, including Per-Gunnar Andersson, Francois Duval, Juha Kankkunen, Ken Block, and Liu Chao Dong. The team again finished third in the manufacturers' standings.
Wilson and Solberg were retained, joined by Mads Ostberg and Evgeny Novikov. The team's best results were two second-place finishes, in Sweden and Wales, marking improvements over previous seasons. As in prior years, the team finished third in the manufacturers' standings behind the Ford and Citroen factory entries.
Stobart's sponsorship was withdrawn in 2012 and the team was rebranded as the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team. Novikov remained with the team and was joined by Ott Tanak, while Ostberg, Wilson, and Solberg departed. With Ford also ending its factory sponsorship at the conclusion of the 2012 season, M-Sport subsequently secured commercial backing from Qatar and competed as the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team in 2013 before operating as M-Sport Ford in later years.
The Stobart Ford World Rally Team provided a consistent mid-field presence in the WRC for six seasons and played a significant role in developing drivers who would go on to greater success, most notably Jari-Matti Latvala, Mads Ostberg, and Evgeny Novikov. Its third-place manufacturer finishes in 2009 and 2010 — behind two factory entries — represented strong results for a privately funded squad relying on customer machinery operated by M-Sport.