2018 Teams

[mknight]

Well as I wrote before I don't think we will see any news about drivers changing teams before much later in the season, for PR and contract reasons.

All we will get early is contract extensions, which we can use to speculate.

On this particular one I am not sure, if Evans is still going to pay like he does this year it surely is a good idea to sign him early and might even help secure Ogier.

[seb_sh]

I think it's too early to take any conclusions from this. Evans was pretty solid this year and he is a good choice to be part of a 3 car team. Ideally as 3rd driver but could be promoted to 2nd and have Suninen 3rd if MSport remains with only 1 lead driver. Tanak or Ogier or maybe Mikkelsen if they both go somewhere else. Still there are two elephants in the room, actually just outside of it, that a lot of things depend on: Ford and Loeb.

[Andre Oliveira]

2018 could be like that?

Ford M-Sport WRT
Ogier
Suninen
Evans

Hyundai Motorsport
Neuville
Sordo
Paddon

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Latvala
Tänak
Lappi

Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT
Loeb
Meeke
Breen / Lefebvre
Al-Qassimi

Drive DMACK M-Sport WRT
Mikkelsen

ONEBET Jipocar WRT
Prokop
Østberg

[mknight]

No...

Mikkelsen was offered DMACK seat last year before Evans and refused cause he didn't want to pay. So the idea that he would accept it this year while Evans drives main m-sport is just wrong.

Also Loeb will never drive full season tbh, max 2-3 rallies for "fun".

[Andre Oliveira]

[Simmi]

2018 could be like that?

Ford M-Sport WRT
Ogier
Suninen
Evans

Drive DMACK M-Sport WRT
Mikkelsen

I think the Dmack third 'works' car has proven to be pretty good this year for M-Sport this year. Is there any evidence that they would run a fourth car?

[seb_sh]

Given Wilson's comments, unless Ford come back with serious cash or they find a big sponsor I assume they will run the minimum cars themselves and any extra would need to be payed for.

In my opinion the worst case scenario is 1 pure MSport car and 1 DMACK.

[dimviii]

is it sure that Evans pay to drive?

[jparker]

No...

Mikkelsen was offered DMACK seat last year before Evans and refused cause he didn't want to pay. So the idea that he would accept it this year while Evans drives main m-sport is just wrong.

Also Loeb will never drive full season tbh, max 2-3 rallies for "fun".

He's not predicting, he's dreaming of Ogier with M-Sport

[AnttiL]

is it sure that Evans pay to drive?

I imagined Evans only pays through DMack sponsor money. What about Tänak?