Meeke would welcome Ogier at Citroen in 2018

Meeke and Ogier have struggled to see eye-to-eye on certain aspects of the sport, but the Briton is adamant that the Paris-based squad would quickly feel the effect of having a four-time champion onboard.

"There's no question, he's the best driver at the moment," said Meeke.

"He's potentially going to win a fifth straight world title and when you bring somebody like that into the team then it's going to strengthen it, we've seen that with Malcolm [Wilson's M-Sport] this year.

"Ogier coming here [to Citroen] could be really good. No matter what team you're talking about, if a world champion arrives, it raises everybody's game – and that's everybody including me, the mechanics, the engineers – everybody."

Should Ogier decide to remain at M-Sport, Citroen team principal Yves Matton has indicated his driver line-up will be unchanged, with the possible addition of Sebastien Loeb on a limited programme.

He said: "Seb Ogier is the only one we are interested in. If we don't bring him to the team, we don't go and talk to others – we will not add to line-up we have and it will remain the same as it is this year."

Speculation remains that Ogier is still in conversation with Hyundai, despite the Korean's recent high-profile signing Andreas Mikkelsen.

Matton said he didn't expect imminent news from Ogier.

"There will be no news before the end of Spain," Matton said, "but I will be surprised if nothing happens before he end of October.

"Sometimes it can take until the last round in Australia, but I don't think [anybody] wants this."