Who’s going to lead the M-sport line?

WRC

Sebastien Ogier’s departure from the M-sport Ford World Rally Team has not only left a huge hole in the Cumbrian squad’s 2019 title ambitions, but there’s also the small matter of a Ford Fiesta WRC seat needing to be filled.

Of Ogier’s current team-mates, only 24-year-old Finn Teemu Suninen has a deal for next season with Malcolm Wilson’s squad. Last year’s Rally GB winner Elfyn Evans is out of contract with M-sport at the end of next month’s Rally Australia, but the Welshman’s chances of remaining in a Ford Fiesta WRC into next year are likely to have been strengthened by Ogier’s decision to join Citroen.

With Toyota driver Esapekka Lappi widely tipped to join Ogier at Citroen, the French firm will need to ship one or both of its current drivers Craig Breen and Mads Ostberg out.

Both Breen (below) and Ostberg would be strong options for M-sport. The Irishman won both of his world titles (WRC Academy and SWRC) in M-sport cars and has a long-standing relationship with Wilson. Ostberg drove for Wilson’s factory squad in 2013 and ’16, and took his only WRC win (Portugal 2012) in a privately run Fiesta RS WRC.

Ahead of any talk of who’s going to be driving the cars, Wilson admitted that the priority remained getting the Fiestas to the start of 2019.

“We’ve been in the world championship for a very long time and the plan is to try to stay there,” he told Autosport. “There are various negotiations going on, but we’ll see – we’re not in a great hurry.”

Asked directly about contracts for next season, he added: “We’ve got Teemu [Suninen]. That’s all.”