Sad news, I was hoping they would at least get one more year but I can't say I'm shocked. Withdrawing from WEC and WRC will barely make a dent on the whole but I guess they're cutting everything that's not essential and not fully electric. A big part of their strategy is to invest heavily on electric cars. So I guess it doesn't matter how much they spent on the new car any extra euro is just wasted if it's not going to development of electric cars. Oh and I wouldn't count on seeing any privateer VW cars, as they're not "finished" and they surely don't want them to be there and behind the competition.

Suddenly 3 of the best 5 drivers (in my opinion) are on the market. M-Sport and Toyota are in the best position to capitalise on this because their driver line-ups are still quite open. But I bet Citroen can open up 1 space and give partial programs to Breen and Lefebvre. Hyundai would need to spend some cash to drop one of their drivers and grab one of the VW boys, not sure if it's worth going for Latvala but Ogier and Mikkelsen could replace any of their drivers and be an improvement.

My prediction:
Citroen: Ogier, Meeke, Breen+Lefebvre sharing
Hyundai: Neuville, Sordo, Paddon
Ford: Mikkelsen, Tanak, Ostberg
Toyota: Latvala, Hanninen, Lappi
DMack: Camilli, Evans

My wish: swap Ogier and Mikkelsen

Another point that comes to mind is this is a big disadvantage to newer drivers like Tidemand or Suninen because there are once again much fewer top seats available than it seemed.