Ogier expects WRC crews “less prepared than ever” at Monte-Carlo

For Sébastien Ogier, the opening of the WRC world championship at the Monte-Carlo Rally (from January 23 to 26) will see the crews arrive “less prepared than ever” faced with the introduction of new tires and the return of cars without hybrids.

For the fourth consecutive season, the eight-time world rally champion will contest a partial season with Toyota which will begin with the legendary Monte-Carlo, which he has already won nine times in his career, a record.

Last week, Ogier took part in his only day of preparatory testing for the event. A day all the more special as it was only his second outing at the wheel of a Rally1 without a hybrid system after the Monza Rally Show last December. The FIA ​​has in fact decided to abandon, in the face of rising operating costs, the hybridization of these cars for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

It was also its first appearance with the tires supplied by Hankook which will make their debut this season. Suffice to say that this day of driving was seen as particularly important by Ogier who, given the extent of the changes in the off-season, believes that Monte-Carlo 2025 will be above all a question of speed of adaptation.

“I think I say every year that the Monte-Carlo never gets easier, even after having started it many times, and I always have enormous respect when approaching this event”declared the Gapençais. “There’s always that fear in you, because you know you’re going to be faced with conditions you don’t expect.”

“With the many changes to the tires and the car, we are probably arriving less prepared than ever, but I think that will be the case for almost everyone at the start. Those who adapt best will have the best chance. “

A question of rapid adaptation but also of experience, which Ogier does not lack, whose last success at Monte-Carlo dates back to the 2023 edition, but who won the event in 2009 (in IRC), then from 2014 to 2019, as well as in 2021.

“Ultimately it is a difficult rally where drivers and experience can often make a difference”he added. “Of course, we can always hope to be competitive there and, in the end, I always trust my feeling, and that has never changed during my career, whether I have a full season or not. I am here to give my better Hopefully this connection with this rally will help me. [cette année].”

With Tom Howard