Sébastien Ogier’s circuit racing program for 2022 will be revealed at the beginning of next month, which should influence which World Rally Championship events he does after the Monte Carlo Rally.
The reigning World Rally Champion is competing part-time with Toyota this year, with his handful of events beginning with the season opener this weekend. It is yet to be determined where he will drive next though, as he shares a GR Yaris Rally1 with Esapekka Lappi.
Lappi will compete on Rally Sweden at the end of February and there had been speculation he would be back in the car for Portugal and Italy with Ogier driving in Croatia, but Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala confirmed that no such agreements are in place yet.
“I really hope that we could clarify it,” Latvala said. “I hope we could have a discussion with him [Ogier] after the rally and then decide what he’s going to do in the future.
“He said to me all the time after Monza that he was still at that time, by the end of the year 2021, he was very tired. So he just wanted to have a holiday and recover for the Monte, and then he will decide what he will do after that.
“But basically our original plan has been that more of the events will be done by EP, and less than half with Séb.”
Ogier was also asked about his post-Monte plans, and said that Rally Portugal – the first gravel rally of the season – is “on the potential list for me” to do. Portugal is an important event for Ogier as it was the scene of his first WRC victory and he currently shares the all-time number of wins (five) with Markku Alén.
“We have been discussing a little bit with the team but it’s not completely clear yet,” Ogier said in response to DirtFish’s question regarding any of his plans.
“I think soon I will be able to announce. I can already say that after this rally there will be a good break for me because everybody knows I was really looking for that and now somehow I didn’t have really a break, straight away after the end of last year we go into Monte.
“So the plan is still the same like I said last year, maybe do something like four or five rallies this year and also very soon I will be able to announce what is my circuit plan for the year.
“But at the moment I’m dealing between having as much family time as I want to have and still make a small program, so it’s always difficult to find the right balance.”
The racing program, which is an intermediary step for Ogier to achieve his goal of driving for Toyota in a prototype sportscar in the Le Mans 24 Hours, could be revealed “beginning of February, you will hear it” and Ogier revealed “there is some more going on to be able to be already this year at Le Mans”.
