Evans spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons with M-Sport, and stayed with the team last year as he stepped down to the WRC2 class.

The Welshman will return to the main class for the first round of the 2017 season with the Cumbria-based team, alongside Sebastien Ogier and Ott Tanak. However, unlike his teammates, Evans will run on DMACK tyres.

Of M-Sport's 2016 drivers, Mads Ostberg is absent from Monte Carlo, while Eric Camilli will be the team's WRC2 entry in Monte Carlo, essentially swapping places with Evans.

Camilli was a regular in the secondary class in 2015 before graduating to the main category in 2016, taking 11th in the standings.

He is the second WRC driver from 2016 to have step down to WRC2, following Andreas Mikkelsen's switch to Skoda.

The FIA WRC Trophy category, which was created for pre-2017 WRC machinery, will have one entrant in WRC2 regular Jordan Serderidis, who will drive a Citroen DS3 WRC.

Craig Breen will also enter in the old Citroen as the French squad gave its new cars to Kris Meeke and Stephane Lefebvre for Monte Carlo, but Breen will take over the second C3 WRC for Rally Sweden.