Sébastien Ogier has announced that he will retire from the FIA World Rally Championship at the end of 2020, when his contract with Citroën expires in an interview with Yahoo Sport.
While there have been rumours for some time, Ogier confirmed his retirement from the sport and explained his reasoning, “My career will stop at the end of 2020 at Citroën,” he says. “After, I’ll want to move on. To be more at home, to be the best father possible, to be more present with my son”.
“Issues of economics and ecology interest me, even if I’ve been driving a rally car for years. I’m sensitive to the fate of the planet”. He later added that he had recently taken up Golf and was finding it to be quite addictive.
Ogier’s departure at the end of the 2020 season will swing the driver market into action, and likely to be the biggest shakeup in the sport of recent years.
The Frenchman is chasing a seventh FIA World Rally Championship title to secure his number 2 spot in the all-time standings behind Sébastien Loeb.
He will certainly be a big loss to the rallying world, but perhaps we could see him in another form of motor sport. Could he do what Loeb did and move to the FIA World Rallycross championship? Only time will tell…