Quote Originally Posted by mknight View Post
It's not confirmed yet.

However I can see Hyundai preferring Neuville over Ogier at this point (he knows the car/team and can fight for title, Ogier would be an unknown and possibly costly as well). Only question is if Citroen might try to snatch Neuville. (Msport likely working hard to keep Ogier).

As to the other positions. I think Hyundai is actually quite satisfied with their lineup this year. Sure Mikkelsen is underperforming and so is Paddon (compared with 2016) but overall the results are decent enough. Question is if the drivers, or more specially Paddon is satisfied or whether he'd prefer to go to Citroen to do full season instead. (I can't see Hyundai letting Paddon drive full season instead of Mikkelsen due to his tarmac pace and Sordo said he doesn't want to do full season any more). One interesting option might be to try to get Lappi for a full season.

Overall if we count with 3 seats at Citroen there are 12 seats in WRC teams and 12 drivers (Paddon and Sordo sharing). While numerous drivers are underperforming (Latvala, Mikkelsen, Evans ++) they have all shown some good results/times as well. So there is no driver that clearly doesn't seem to deserve a seat (like Lefevbre looked last year).

At the same time how many drivers are there outside that you would instantly put into WRC manu car? I'd say 2: Meeke and Tidemand. Meeke is a lottery, possibly a costly one. So that leaves Tidemand which has no experience with WRC car yet. Sure some team might try to get some talent in early and see how it turns out, but it was usually Msport doing that and they already have kind of a low-cost "young" team with Evans and Suninen. Toyota has Lappi and Citroen Breen. Hyundai might let Huttunen in at some point but it's now too early.
If both Ogier and Neuville stays, which is probably happening.
And citroen keeps Breen and Řstberg who will be 3rd and likely leading Citroen driver ?

I believe we have 1 open factory seat if Paddon/Sordo keep sharing or if Paddon goes somewhere and Sordo doesn´t want full season Hyundai needs 0,5 driver.