Why did Ford remove the Fiesta ST’s Recaro seats and why the raised nose? We interview Liviu Tudoran, the 2022 Fiesta designer, to find out.
Q: What were you looking to achieve with the Fiesta’s updated front end, is this Ford’s new family face?
A: Yes it is. Normally with facelifts you try to bring the car up to date with new fascia, but for the new Fiesta, we were able to go further with a new bonnet that raises the nose by 15mm or so.
There’s now a lot more content at the front; the grille is wider, we’ve moved the Ford badge down, and there’s contrast between gloss and matte finishes in the lower grilles. We also added a front splitter embossed with ‘Ford Performance’ close to the end of the programme.
Q: You mentioned that the nose of the car has been raised slightly, is that for improved pedestrian safety, or was it a purely design-driven decision?
A: No, it’s purely for styling. We felt that the bonnet was previously too flat, and by increasing its height, we’ve improved the low, wedge-shaped nose of the old car. We’ve also aligned the shutline of the bonnet with the beltline of the car, to give a more consistent look.
We also added extra creases in the bonnet; the old car had a single line, which we felt was ‘twisting’, and the extra lines solve this.
Q: The overall look of the car isn’t a huge departure from the previous model, and it looks like a key aim of the facelift was to tighten up the details. Talk us through some of those.
Yes, we focussed a lot on fixing the small details. So there are elements like additional creases on the lower front bumper, which can be much sharper thanks to plastic injection moulding.
We also paid a lot of attention to the front parking sensors, to make sure they integrate seamlessly with the lower grille. The undercut on the lower grilles gives a more three-dimensional look, and catches more shadows.
Onto the interior, the ST isn’t fitted with Recaro seats anymore. Why the change?
You’re right, the Recaro seats have been replaced with in-house Ford designed seats. I owned the previous generation Fiesta ST with Recaro seats, and I must say, I sat in this car and the new seats feel better.
The ST also has a new digital gauge cluster, like the Ford Puma.
You can spot the tweaks to the front end, but the rear looks almost identical to the previous Fiesta. Have there been any changes here?
The only change at the rear is the tail lamps, which are now darker. It’s the same light unit, but the black bezel gives the car a more serious look, compared to the bright red units before.
The rest of the rear end is the same, but we’ve added some matte and gloss black contrast finishes to the diffuser. And of course there’s the colour, Mean Green, which fits nicely with the ST.
2022 Ford Fiesta ST for Australia
Ford Australia has confirmed the new Fiesta ST will arrive early next year – “Q1 2022”. You can read all of the initial specifications here, though pricing is yet to be detailed.