Sebastien Ogier is the first driver to receive an official notification by Citroen works team regarding next season, as he was consistently linked with a move alongside Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo for 2009. However, team principal Olivier Quesnel insisted that Ogier will not become an official driver for the works team and his participation in 2009 is pending on finding the necessary funds to support a 3rd C4 car in the championship.
“It will be a private car for Sebastien. he M1 (works team line-up) is finished, it stays the same. At the moment, it's six (rounds) for Seb, but if money comes then anything is possible,” confirmed Quesnel earlier today.
Ogier, winner of the Junior World Rally Championship at his very debut in the series, is due to make his WRC debut later this month, at Rally Great Britain. He admitted that he is looking forward to making his first appearance in the WRC, although nothing was confirmed for the season finale.
“I don't know too much about my future, you need ask my boss. Maybe Rally GB, but for the moment it's not certain. It could be good, for the future we want to go into the WRC as soon as we can,” said Ogier earlier last month.
As for Citroen's M2 team, Quesnel insisted that he is yet to officially name the drivers' lineup for 2009 despite several rumors circulating within the media in the last few weeks: “The internet and some websites are like this, some story starts and it goes on and on. We said we wanted two cars in the M2 team and we would like Conrad (Rautenbach) to stay. We have a contract, but it's not signed. Apart from Conrad, we have heard about Andreas Mikkelsen and Urmo Aava, but nothing is signed yet.”
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