Ott Tänak also wants to drive in the World Rally Championship in 2024 – but has to admit that the search for a WRC cockpit will not be easy.
It is currently still unclear whether and for which team Ott Tänak will drive in the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2024. The 2019 world champion would like to continue his career and is holding talks, but the Estonian cannot yet estimate whether these will be successful.
“The plan or idea is to keep going,” says Tänak. “It’s hard to say how it will work. There haven’t been many conversations yet, so I think we’ll find out soon.”
Like all other current WRC drivers with the exception of Thierry Neuville, Tänak does not yet have a contract for the coming season. In principle, his current team M-Sport can imagine further collaboration with the Estonian. The question, however, is whether the British team can meet Tänak’s salary expectations.
World Rally Championship: Only Thierry Neuville with a contract for the 2024 WRC season
Ford’s support remains limited and since the introduction of the Rally1 regulations, M-Sport’s customer business in the premier class of the WRC, which was an important part of the business model for years, has largely collapsed.
In addition, the 2023 WRC season has so far not gone as expected in terms of sport.
While M-Sport had set the goal at the start of the season to fight for the drivers’ title with Tänak, the Estonian is only in fourth place in the championship three rallies before the end of the season and has long since lost his chance of winning the title.
There are hardly any realistic alternatives for Tänak in the small field of the World Rally Championship. He says: “There are always conversations with everyone [WRC-Teams]there are so few teams and the group is so small that you’re always talking to everyone, whether it’s about contracts or anything else, everyone is in touch with everyone.”
Rally star Tänak worries about WRC: “The sport is not doing well”
However, a return to Hyundai seems unrealistic. At the end of 2022, Tänak left the South Korean manufacturer’s factory team prematurely and terminated his contract.
Toyota has not yet confirmed a driver for 2024, but there is no indication that the Japanese want to change anything in their current line-up with world champion Kalle Rovanperä, Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and part-time driver Sebastien Ogier.
Meanwhile, Tänak is not only thinking about his personal future, but also about what he believes are necessary changes in the crisis-ridden WRC.
“There are so many more important things than [Vertrags-]Conversations,” he says. “At the moment the most important thing is that the promoter and the FIA create something fresh for the future. The sport is not doing well at the moment.”