Sébastien Ogier has indicated he’s considering chasing after a ninth world title – but whether he chooses to contest all the remaining rounds is down to how he fares in Finland.
The eight-time world champion has been the highest-scoring driver during the 2024 season in terms of points per round and sits fourth in the championship standings despite missing three rallies.
After topping the points-scoring charts in Latvia last month, his gap to championship leader Thierry Neuville narrowed to 28 points – after which Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala admitted he’d like to ask Ogier to contest all the remaining rounds this season.
Now Ogier has confirmed to DirtFish that he’s considering doing exactly that and will also be entered into the next round of the season, Acropolis Rally Greece – but which if any of the last three rounds of the season he’ll enter depends heavily on how Rally Finland goes.
Ogier has accidentally found himself on the fringes of the drivers' championship fight
“It was obviously not a target that I set for the season,” said Ogier of the drivers’ championship title. “Starting with doing less rallies, especially with the current point system, it’s a very big handicap. It’s very hard to recover points as wins are devalued a lot these days.
“In the end, 28 points is still a big gap. But I’m honest also: if the opportunity arises, I won’t say I will not fight for it. Of course, I will still fight for it if it has become a target toward the end of the year.
“I’m still focusing on rally after rally. At the moment, I can guarantee you that there is still not every single rally planned in the championship on the remaining rounds. But I don’t know. Maybe after this one, I can tell you more already if there is a reason to change or not.”
Key to Ogier’s thinking is how many points he can carve out of Neuville’s advantage in Finland. Road order should be less of an issue for those starting high up the order in Finland – especially if the roads remain moist from rain – and Ogier believes the small differences in points for positions means he would be unlikely to make the kind of headway needed to close down the full 28 points between now and Japan.
“The only calculation I see is that it’s five rallies remaining, and in your hand, on a single event, you could see that you have five points,” Ogier explained.
“That’s the thing: you can make three [points gap] on the Saturday, and you can make two on Sunday if the guy is always behind you. Which is a bit of a shame, again, because the victories are a bit devalued compared to the past. So that’s why 28 [points] is still big and I haven’t really made any kind of calculation again.
“But I’m happy to talk after this one. I can tell you that I’m going to be in Greece anyway. That was planned long ago. And afterwards, we’ll see.”
Ogier would need to decide whether he wanted to contest Rally Chile before the WRC heads to Acropolis: entries for Chile close on August 27 but Rally Greece doesn’t take place until September.
