Meeke, Ostberg, Paddon and Mikkelsen: the forgotten people of the WRC

The chances of seeing Kris Meeke (43 years old), Mads Ostberg (35 years old), Andreas Mikkelsen (33 years old) and Hayden Paddon (35 years old) driving a Rally1 in WRC in 2023 are almost zero. It would indeed take several twists and turns for them to win a participation, unless of course they find a budget to rent a Ford Puma or the Yaris which will be available at Toyota for 7 races.

Not fortunate, it will not be Meeke nor Paddon who will not approach Toyota Gazoo Racing either, if the latter does not want to lose its privileged links with Hyundai New Zealand. On the Norwegian side, the finances are undoubtedly in the bank, but neither Viking wants to continue paying to ride. Once this track is abandoned, the opportunities are almost absent, which may be surprising, because between them, they have 10 World Cup victories.

Everyone has at least 1 which cannot be claimed Craig Breen or Takamoto Katsuta who will speak over the next 12 months. The experience that was put forward as a criterion at the time of the recruitment of Esapekka Lappi by Hyundai is not lacking among these four forgotten people. Meeke (104 rallies), Mikkelsen (125), Paddon (83) and Ostberg (139) have a substantial background, but the main reason why their CVs were not accepted is that they never applied butt in a Rally1 hybrid.

The time and number of sessions available also prevent these “old hands” from returning. While waiting for the wheel to turn and this opportunity to be offered to them, they all pursue their careers even if it is sometimes very far from the spotlight. An excellent developer with his engineering background, Meeke has just spent more than a year developing the new Fabia RS Rally2 and it is not certain that he will one day have the chance to use it in racing.

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Skoda is not officially present and the teams that will have it are not ready to sacrifice an event just to please him. Having also participated in the work on this Rally2, Mikkelsen is not guaranteed to use it in a championship either. Crowned in WRC2 in 2021, he is not on any shelf today and he is the one whose future is the most unclear.

Returning to New Zealand, Paddon will most likely succeed in setting up a program in which there will be visits to Europe, but nothing says that he will appear in WRC2 as he had suggested.

FIA Asia Pacific Rally Champions!

We had to do it the difficult way after yesterdays dramas and time penalties, but to come from behind makes it even sweeter. Really enjoyed the battle with Harry and Nathan.

A massive thanks to our team! Mega job. @HyundaiNZ pic.twitter.com/VDMFbKLgDv

— Hayden Paddon (@HaydenPaddon) November 27, 2022

Finally, Ostberg who no longer appeared in WRC from Catalonia at the end of 2021 offers his services in Hungary where he was champion this year, but also in Chile where he won 2 races in 2022. Will he be able to take advantage of these good relationships to relaunch a somewhat stalled career? ?

It was a good year in Hungary, winning all the events, and becoming Hungarian Champions! pic.twitter.com/bvqpP3ACTa

- Mads Østberg (@MadsOstberg) November 14, 2022

During the coming months, four former WRC winners will monitor the progress of the WRC rounds in order to be ready in case their cell phones start to ring.