Rally Finland: Will Sébastien Ogier aim for a 9th title?

While the 9^e round of the calendar takes place this weekend in Finland, Sébastien Ogier and his navigator Vincent Landais will take the start of their 6^e race of the year. Compared to 2023, their program is very different. Last year, they actually took a break during the summer between Kenya (early June) and the Acropolis (early September). This time, the crew did not go on vacation and they could even have completed the three meetings at high speed if they had not missed Poland because of their accident during reconnaissance. Ogier's commitment to Latvia and Finland while his teammate specializing in these roads (Kalle Rovanperä, Editor's note) was also present can be explained by the desire of his team to close the gap with Hyundai in the championship. The experience and speed of the Gapençais were called upon… and it paid off.

Unlike his little comrades, Seb had not had a training round before Latvia, but that did not prevent him from performing well and bringing the double to his employer. The goal will be no different in Finland. Ogier presents himself with the disadvantage of not having competed in this event in 2022 and 2023 and the first results on Friday morning confirm that he sometimes lacks benchmarks. The objective of this weekend is still to help the TGR in the Manufacturers' ranking, but Ogier will also assess his chances for the future.

Since he was crowned for the 8^e times world champion (in 2021), the pilot Toyota never made a 9^e crowns an obligation. While this would offer him the possibility of joining Sébastien Loeb at the pinnacle of the discipline, he preferred to take a completely different path by playing partial seasons since 2022. This allows him to find a good balance between time with family and the satisfaction of his passion. Already very successful last year (3 successes, 4 podiums) he could have been a candidate for the coronation at one point in the year, but he remained in his philosophy and did not try to do more. Can he consider it this year?

After Finland, there will be 4 races to go, two on gravel (Acropolis and Chile) and two on asphalt (Central Europe and Japan). Before the end of the Finnish weekend, Ogier is 4^e of the championship with 28 points behind Thierry Neuville. Given the new distribution of rewards, this is a significant gap to fill, as the Sunday allocation often helps limit losses. If Sébastien were to achieve a good place in Finland and position himself close to the leader, why would he not consider the option of continuing his year? He has already announced that he will be leaving from the Acropolis (September 5-8)... and then? The Frenchman will have to rediscover Chile, but that won't scare him and he knows his way around the tarmac. His chances of continuing to shine as he has been doing since the start of the season are great. Jari-Matti Latvala and Toyota would be delighted to see Sébastien Ogier on board for the entire programme. His fans are just waiting for that….