BP Ford team boss, Malcolm Wilson has confirmed that the M-Sport-ru🦩n operation won't be in a position to announce who will replace the retiring Marcus Gronholm until late Novembe𓆏r - or even December.

Speaking during the official FI༒A press conference ahead of this weekend's Rally Japan, which gets underway on Friday, Wilson Sr added though that they will probably opt for a fixed second driver, rather than bringing in speci🐭alists for different events.

"The first thing, sadly, is there's no Marcus [Gronholm] or Sebastien [Loeb] in the sweet shop that you can pi🍰ck off the shelf. We haven't made a decision yet though [on who will replace Marcus]," he noted.

"It's been successful, for the past few years, having twཧo fixed drivers and that's what I'd like to do. We might opt for two rotational drivers, but at the moment w👍e are trying to tie up the Championship.

"In late November or December time we will, hopefully, be in a posit🍌ion to announce w🎀hat we're going to do."

Currently a number of drivers' are thought to be in consideration by Ford, including 'B' teamꦇ member, Jari-Matti Latvala, as well as people like Francois Duval, Toni Gardemeister, Gigi Galli and even Petter Solberg, although the Norwegian does have a deal with Subaru for next year, something which would seemin𝕴gly rule him out.