The 2020 FIA World Rally Championship season may have only ended last weekend after Sébastien Ogier clinched his seventh Drivers’ Championship title on ACI Rally Monza, but with only a few weeks left until Rallye Monte-Carlo, here is everything we know so far when it comes to driver lineups for 2021.
Toyota Gazoo Racing
Toyota Gazoo Racing seemingly will have the same line-up from this season and will continue with reigning champion Ogier and title rival Elfyn Evans, with Kalle Rovanperä again competing in the team’s third car.
I think Takamoto Katsuta will also continue with the team, especially after he took his first stage win in the championship on the very last stage of the 2020 season on the Rally Monza Power Stage.
Hyundai Motorsport
Earlier today (9 December) Hyundai Motorsport confirmed the same line-up as this year for 2021 where Theirry Neuville and Ott Tänak will again be joined by Dani Sordo and Craig Breen who will share the third car.
How they will split the season between them has not been decided yet, but Breen has reportedly been offered a bigger role than he previosuly had.
M-Sport Ford
At M-Sport Ford, change could be expected over the next few weeks. All three of this season’s drivers reportedly could leave this winter, although I think Teemu Suninen and also Gus Greensmith will stay with the team.
Esapekka Lappi meanwhile appeared to drop a huge piece of news as he crossed the finishing line at Monza and seemingly confirmed he’s leaving the sport before the 2021 season starts.
Who replaces him is anyone’s guess, although surely Adrien Fourmaux, who has this year driven in the WRC2 class for M-Sport, could be one of the faviourtes for the drive.
2C Competition
Same as Fourmax at M-Sport, Pierre-Louis Loubet is also supported by the French Motorsport Association but this year’s investment was short-lived. He only made three WRC starts with the French team 2C Competition in the Hyundai i20 WRC.
A continued program could follow and maybe we will also see Ole-Christian Veiby drive more rallies next season. In 2020, the Norwegian has also competed in WRC2 for Hyundai and made his WRC (Rally1) debut at Monza.
Polish WRC Team?
Speculation about a Polish team has been intensifying over recent weeks as we reported recently with Robert Kubica and Kajetan Kajetanowicz potentially entering the championship in a pair of Hyundai i20 WRCs.
Toksport
In the WRC2 class, there are also rumors of an all-Scandinavian line-up when Toksport WRT continues to run a Škoda Motorsport program in the series, where rumors of both Oliver Solberg and Andreas Mikkelsen are circulating.
