I woudn't call the SX4:s top running machinery, and actually wouldn't be surprised if we did not see them next year (the car is not competitive and there's little point in development since they can only use the car effectively in 2009).
Apart from that, the field for 2009 looks promising.
As for the Subaru B team, it'll be interesting to see who gets those seats. Hopefully the drivers get the seats with talent rather than bags of money.
As far as the UK drivers go, Meeke and Wilks are propably the most likely canditates. Mind you, in my view neither is world champion material (judging mainly from their results in JWRC) but both deserve a shot at the main game. As mentioned Higgins is already a veteran (two years older than Henning Solberg) and I don't see him getting the seat without sponsorship (a'la Henning Solberg). I don't think Gareth MacHale will get the seat either if talent is concerned, so far he has not impressed me with pace and his few good results have been more thanks to lack of top flight competitors and consistency. He has plenty of experience from WRC machinery and the sponsorship from family business, though, which could help. I'll add Barry Clark to the list as well but he's really a wildcard, since he's young, inexperienced and AFAIK firmly a Ford man.
As for non-UK entrants... I'll throw in some names, some more likely than others...
- Having Markko M?rtin back would be fab! He still has several good years ahead of him if he decides to make the return to the sport.
- Anton Al?n was mentioned in the Richards interview so DR must have given him a thought, but as he mentioned Anton doesn't have much WRC experience.
- Juho H?nninen could be a better choise for a Finnish driver, he has some promising WRC events under his belt in Lancer WRC's, and good results from PWRC as well.
- Andreas Mikkelsen seems to have talent, so if he could be lured from Ford camp he could be a good choice
- Also from Norway, Mads ?stberg has some good results under his belt.
- Francois Duval. Strong on tarmac, some talent, plenty of experience.
- Jan Kopecky. Unlikely, true, but would be interesting. Did some great results in the ancient Fabia WRC last year...
- Xevi Pons. Plenty of experience, also familiar with the team. Then again, I don't think his results last year impressed the team...
I left Ogier out since, as DR metnioned, he's a Citroen man. By the way, I would not be surprised to see Ogier in a third factory-entered Citro?n C4 WRC next year, maybe even this year. He seems to be on a similar ladder as Loeb and Sordo were in the start of their careers.