Gronholm breaks silence on retirement talk.

Marcus Gronholm has confirmed that he will make a decision on whether or not he continues in the WRC post-2007 following this weekend's Rally Finland.

Speculation on whether or not the Finn will continue to compete in the FIA World Rally Championship next year has been going on for sometime and while he has remained tight lipped - and refused to comment on the matter at the last event in Greece, merely noting that he 'doesn't know', when questioned on it, he has now said that he will make up his mind in the next few weeks.

Indeed he stated that he currently finds all the events and travelling a little too much and that ideally there would only be 12 or 14 events per year, as there will be from 2009, something that may or may not have an impact on his decision.

"I have wanted to take advantage of these days off to rest [during the break], to meditate on it and after the Rally of Finland I will make a decision," he told as.com, when asked about the future and if he will retire.

"It is difficult to leave it when you are doing well, but it is very hard being abroad all the time. There are too many rallies and the ideal would be 12 or 14 events at most. Nobody has really complained about these things since Carlos Sainz."

Pressed on what he might do in the future and if he might follow the likes of Sainz and Colin McRae and do the Dakar Rally, Gronholm said that while you can never say never, he thought it was unlikely.

"I always say no to that, but who knows," he pondered. "I believe that it [the Dakar] is very dangerous because you go very fast on stages that you do not know."

As for who will be the future stars in the WRC, Gronholm believes that Citroen's Dani Sordo and his BP Ford team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen both have what it takes to reach the very top.

"Dani is very good, especially if we consider that he does not have much experience yet," Marcus explained. "He not only goes fast on asphalt but also on gravel. In Greece, Sebastien [Loeb] was astonished by the times that Dani did. He has all the possibilities someday of getting to be champion of the world. Dani and Mikko [Hirvonen] are the future."