Ogier has not competed full-time in the WRC since 2021, instead focusing on part-time participation in the championship.
This season, Ogier had once again planned to contest only a selection of events, but as with last year, his part-time schedule has opened up a genuine opportunity for him to fight for the championship. Somewhat surprisingly, Ogier appeared at the start line in Finland at the beginning of August and announced afterwards that he was throwing everything into the title battle.
Ogier has already won four rallies this season and sits third in the drivers’ standings ahead of Rally Chile. The French multiple champion is only nine points behind his Toyota team-mate and current leader, Elfyn Evans.
Ogier has won eight world titles in total – with Volkswagen, Toyota and even M-Sport. The championship he claimed with M-Sport makes comparisons across seasons very difficult, but could Ogier now be driving the best season of his career?
“I’m not sure,” Toyota’s technical director Tom Fowler told Dirtfish.
“Maybe it is his best ever. The way he’s operated – and is operating – this season is incredible. The pace he has compared to the others is pretty unbelievable and it shows no sign of dropping. The point that brings that home is just how close the drivers’ championship is, with him having not started three of the 10 rallies,” Fowler praised.
Ogier’s season is perhaps best summed up by the fact that, had the rain in Paraguay not fallen at just the wrong moment for him on the Power Stage, the Frenchman could already be leading the drivers’ standings – as unbelievable as that may sound.
It was therefore no surprise that Ogier was deeply frustrated after Paraguay.
“For me, that showed him as the ultimate competitor that he is,” Fowler noted.
“It showed how much it meant to him to try to take the maximum points to help his championship. For those people who don’t get that, I think maybe the perspective that’s missing for them is that he was the fastest driver of the rally, without a doubt. He made up the 40 seconds he lost and he caught that time back with pure driving,” Fowler added.
