Really excited about this win! It's only their second year and they already got the constructor's championship. Tänak crashed out which ended his championship hopes but to be honest, he is not the favourite anyway. The Yaris WRC was suffering from early season reliability issues which meant Tänak had to play catch up and got stressed out among the fight. But it's safe to say in the second half of the season Tommi Mäkinen's team developed by far the fastest car in the field, although some realibility issues remain to be addressed (like the infamously fragile radiator and insufficient cooling). The real highlight towards the end of the season is JML who recovered from his streak of bad luck. I have always rooted for him because he is that wonder kid who never had the luck to be a champion.
Although I'm not a fan of Ogier, I have to say this is his best driver's champion. He was fighting in an inferior car (unlike his first four titles) and remained calm when playing the road sweeper role, something Thierry Neuville still needs to work on. Feel sorry for Neuville too, since he was very dominant in the first half of the season he had to do road sweeping while his team fell apart. Hyundai had three times the budget of M-Sport, a privateer team, but failed to deliver a championship-winning car. They were completely out-developed by Mäkinen's team and the i20 was hopeless against the Yaris in the second half. Also the so-called 'Dream Team' failed to take the constructor's title because Andreas Mikkelson was underwhelming this season. They should have just commited to Dani Sordo and Hayden Paddon which are more reliable score winners.
Next year will be even more exciting than 2018. Toyota now has the strongest package and three very fast drivers, including the 'flat-out-or-nothing' Kris Meeke. Tänak will have a much easier time chasing the driver's title. It remains to be seen whether Hyundai can recover from their recent woes and truly deliver the 'Dream Team' performance. Citroen is also making a come-back with strong showing towards the end of the season, and I expect Ogier to stay in the fight, and of course they've got the rising star EP who underperformed at Toyota this season.
Sorry M-Sport, but apparently being able to build a championship-winning car with one third the budget is not enough to convince Ford. I guess they'll only join if FIA introduces some sort of 'World SUV Championship' or 'World Monster-truck Championship' because they just don't care about cars anymore.
