BP Ford team boss, Malcolm Wilson has confirmed that the M-Sport-run operation won't be in a position to an⛎nounce who will replace the retiring Marcus Gronholm until late November - or even December.

Speaking during the official FIA press conference ahead of this weekend's Rally Japan, which gets underway on Friday♓, W🌟ilson Sr added though that they will probably opt for a fixed second driver, rather than bringing in specialists for different events.

"The first thing, sadly, is there's no Marcus [Gronholm] or Sebastien [ಞLoeb] in the sweet shop that you can pick 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 two fixed drivers and that's what I'd like to do. We might opt for two rotational driv𝄹ers, but at the moment we are trying to tie up the Championship.

"In late November or December time we wi🧔ll, hopefully, be in a position to announce 🗹what we're going to do."

Currently a number of driv💦ers' are thought to be in consideration by Ford, including 'B' team 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 seemingly rule him out.