Ogier to part ways with long term co-driver Ingrassia at the end of this season

Hi, friends!

Nothing lasts forever, they say, and it seems that this also means in sport as well. Seven time World Rally Champions Seb Ogier and Julien Ingrassia will part their ways as a crew after 15 years of cooperation in a rally car.

Those two guys won the Junior World Rally Championship in 2008 with Citroen C2 Super 1600 and I remember well their first outing in JWRC. It was in Mexico 2008 and they finished 8th overall and first in JWRC. I thought: OK, they chose Mexico because there won't be much entrants for the class, and to take class win and the points.

But how the season has progressed, they were more and more in front taking the class wins except in Finland but that was enough for Citroen Racing leadership to give the real opportunity with C4 WRC at the end of that 2008.

First rally in the WRC car, and they were already leading the field. That was it, whole rally world new that something special was coming. And they did a lot together.

Citroen gave them a first chance to shine and they scored first wins with them. But they couldn't shine bright enough there because Citroen already had number one driver in their team who was also prioritized. Ogier just couldn't handle this situation and they chose to leave at the end of 2010 for the new WRC team (at that time) Volkswagen.

Volkswagen didn't have the car ready for competition so they took S2000 Škoda Fabia from their sisterhood company Škoda and sent Ogier and Ingrassia to drive almost every round of that 2011 World Rally Championship.

Well, they won four WRC titles with Volkswagen in their four years with Polo WRC. After Volkswagen withdrew from the sport because of the Diesel gate scandal, guys signed with M-Sport Ford and won another tow WRC titles. They also gave one manufacturer's title to M-Sport Ford.

But they moved further, and back to Citroen Racing for 2019. Their C3 WRC was really badly developed and they couldn't do much to win the championship in 2019. So they left for Toyota for 2020.

They won another WRC title last season and now they are battling of another.

What to say?
They are the most complete rally crew at the planet right now, the crew which is still involved in the WRC.
Julien Ingrassia decided to move on of there won't be a full season on the horizon and Ogier doesn't want to be in the sport that much anymore.

They still have two WRC rallies to drive together - in Catalunya and Monza. They will be remembered in the rally world, that's for sure.

Benjamin Veillas, co-driver for Seb Ogier in the testing sessions, will co-drive Ogier in the future, while we still don't know what are the future plans for Julien Ingrassia.

Ogier said these days that he is not sure that he would win everything they won without Ingrassia as a co-driver and I think the same way. It just must be the perfect combo for success.

Credit for photos and videos to WRC and Youtube

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