Silly Season 2020

[er88]

I'm hearing that potentially a contract between Meeke and Toyota was signed before the Ogier deal, which may mean that the team had to buy out two contracts (Citroen and Meeke's)

I heard myself a while back from one person on reddit who has been very reliable in the past, that Meeke had signed for another year in the lead up to Wales or just after it . Also said decisions had been made within Toyota/ with Makinen that Latvala was out for definite as early as the summer break. Still took it with a pinch of salt though, because none of the normal reliable news outlets or reporters seemed to have a clue what was really happening with the driver market.

However with the shock of Tanak actually leaving, it's clear the whole WRC has spiralled into madness so maybe it is actually true what you say and Tommi has reacted to the Hyundai super-team lineup. David Evans also said Ogier wanted Evans as team mate, or recommended him when asked, so with Kalle already signed up maybe there's been a brown envelope sent Meeke's way - so Ogier and Evans have seats alongside Kalle.

Knowing this silly season, no rumour is too wild or strange

[Allez Andruet]

I heard myself a while back from one person on reddit who has been very reliable in the past, that Meeke had signed for another year in the lead up to Wales or just after it . Also said decisions had been made within Toyota/ with Makinen that Latvala was out for definite as early as the summer break. Still took it with a pinch of salt though, because none of the normal reliable news outlets or reporters seemed to have a clue what was really happening with the driver market.

However with the shock of Tanak actually leaving, it's clear the whole WRC has spiralled into madness so maybe it is actually true what you say and Tommi has reacted to the Hyundai super-team lineup. David Evans also said Ogier wanted Evans as team mate, or recommended him when asked, so with Kalle already signed up maybe there's been a brown envelope sent Meeke's way - so Ogier and Evans have seats alongside Kalle.

Knowing this silly season, no rumour is too wild or strange

Or... just thinking out loud, but this does resemble an awful lot of the situation Mäkinen found himself in November 2016. He had signed Hänninen and Lappi (in that order) when the whole VW trio suddenly became available. He could have benched Hänninen and go with the line-up of Latvala and Lappi (with Suninen joining in the third car later in the season - that later being Portugal as we eventually saw with Lappi). But, Mäkinen made the somewhat unpopular call to stick with Hänninen and demoted Lappi to the third car. Okey, the situation with TGR is hugely different now than it was three years ago, but still... Could Tommi play the loyalty card once again and have Meeke driving the third Yaris alongside Ogier and Evans? With Kalle doing x amount of rallies (maybe them all) in a "junior team" with Katsuta?

However it turns out to be, Meeke - if he indeed had the paper signed - is now a wealthy man, even if technically unemployed.