I’ll freely admit to indulging in a bit of speculation here, but one thing I have wondered is whether any of the top drivers would consider 2026 the last "proper" World Championship title for a while, with Rally2 and what looks like a pretty neutered WRC27 car on the way to being top class.

I seem to recall Neuville mentioning that he’s not really looking forward to driving slower cars, and if Tänak has followed that line of thinking, I reckon he will have given that Toyota seat some extra attention as opposed to just hanging around at Hyundai. Especially if he doesn‘t want to continue at all beyond 2026, which is also possible.