McRae cans Skoda plans

McRae tested the Skoda Fabia WRC briefly last month and had been widely tipped to seal a job-share arrangement with Skoda that would put his protegee Kris Meeke in the car as well as the 1995 World Champion.

McRae told Autosport that the deal is dead. "That one's over. It's not a goer," he said. "It was because of a bit of everything really. Partly to do with the financial side of things being very poor, partly to do with the general package and partly to do with the plan for next season."

McRae still believes that he has a chance to get back into the WRC though. Ford for example currently has two driver vacancies for 2005.

Maybe there's something we could do at Ford," the Scot continued. "We're still talking to people, but nothing is straightforward. The deals are quite complicated, money has to be found - it's not like we're talking about a simple driving deal.

"There are a few younger drivers around with money, but it's up to the teams to decide if they want to take a chance with that or if they want a driver who can perform and has a profile."

McRae believes that Subaru's concentration on a youth policy rules him out there, though he still feel's Meeke is in the frame. "Subaru is very clear that it is still focused on its youth programme," said McRae, "and I think that kind of rules me out a bit, but I hope we can do something with Kris."

Currently McRae's only 2005 commitment is to drive in the Dakar Rally for Nissan in January. He is also known to be keen to race again in the Le Mans 24 Hours - in which he made his debut this year in a Prodrive-run Ferrari 550 Maranello.