HAVE YOUR SAY WE NEED YOU! GET INVOLVED WITH MN MN SAYS... Bad news for young aces

WRITE TO US Motorsport News Haymarket Consumer Media, Bridge House, 69 London Road, Twickenham TW1 3SP VW’S exit from WRC could spell trouble for rising stars

There are three pretty big names walking around the World Rally Championship service park unemployed at the moment, and all three of them are going to be highly desired.

Multiple champion Sebastien Ogier is clearly the biggest draw of all,and, with VW’S reversal out of the sport, any other team principal worth the name would be straight on the phone to him. There might be less clamour to contact Jari-matti Latvala and Andreas Mikkelsen, but they are both proven round winners.

There is plenty of speculation about the likely destinations of all three men, which we have investigated in Motorsport News this week but there is a damaging spin-off. There aren’t that many factory drives in the WRC and now there are three less.

If all three of the former Polo R WRC pilots land gainful employment, they will be taking up seats that might well have previously gone to the next generation of star drivers. The chances of making it to the top of the WRC have got a great deal slimmer for the modern generation. Matt James, Editor