Solberg stays with Citroen in 2010 [WRC]

12/1/10

Solberg stays with Citroen in 2010

Former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg has confirmed he will drive a Citroen C4 World Rally Car in this year's World Rally Championship.

The decision continues a relationship established last year when Solberg tackled most of the 2009 series in his own privately run Citroen Xsara WRC. He later accepted an offer to drive a Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC on the final two rounds.

Petter Solberg will drive a C4 again in 2010

Solberg: Citroen offer looking best for 2010

Norway's Petter Solberg looks likely to join Kimi Raikkonen as a C4 World Rally Car driver next season, after being made an attractive offer by Citroen.

Solberg, who won the 2003 World Championship with Subaru, tackled most of the 2009 series in a privately entered Xsara WRC, before accepting an offer to drive a Citroen Junior Team C4 WRC for the final two rounds.

With little chance of a manufacturer-funded programme in 2010, Solberg decided to go it alone once again, and try to raise the money himself for a season in a top-level World Rally Car - either a Ford Focus RS WRC or a Citroen C4 WRC.

Kimi Raikkonen to drive with Citroen

Kimi Raikkonen to Citroen - it’s official!

Finland's 2007 Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen has signed a deal to drive a C4 World Rally Car on 12 rounds of the 2010 World Rally Championship.

This morning's long awaited announcement from Citroen Racing brings an end to weeks of speculation concerning the F1 star's plans for 2010, when he will take a sabbatical from his Grand Prix career.

Raikkonen will drive for Citroen's second squad, the Junior World Rally Team, thanks to backing from Red Bull - one of his personal sponsors from F1. He will be co-driven by fellow Finn Kaj Lindstrom, who previously partnered multiple WRC champion Tommi Makinen. The only rally the pair will miss next year is Rally New Zealand - an event the Junior Team is skipping altogether.

“I always wanted to compete in rally, especially in the World Rally Championship at some point in my career," said Raikkonen. "Thanks to Red Bull, I have the opportunity to drive the best car of the series with the Citroen C4. This is a new but very exciting challenge. For the moment we have a one-year contract and we will see how it goes for the future. I am really looking forward to testing the car and taking the start of the first rally.”

Partnering Raikkonen at the Citroen Junior team in 2010, will be French rising star Sebastien Ogier, 25, who will also drive a Red Bull-backed C4.

Loeb wins in Argentina... again

Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Elena and their Citroën C4 WRC overcame the three days of rain, fog and treacherous conditions that were thrown at them during the 2008 Rally Argentina to end the fiercely fought battle on top spot. The mud didn’t deter the spectators from turning out in their usual high numbers as Dani Sordo and Marc Martí joined their team-mates on the podium in third place. The visit to South America turned out to be highly successful for Citroën-Total, with Sébastien taking control in the Drivers’ championship, while Citroën is now just three points short of the lead in the Manufacturers’ standings.

The final leg of the event was once again marked by wet weather, with fog also making an appearance high in the mountains of the ’Giulio Cesare’ and ’El Condor’ tests. These were the only true stages of the day before one last visit to the super-special in Córdoba and the finish ceremony in Villa Carlos Paz.

Just like Diego Maradona in the days when he starred with the N°10 jersey in Argentina’s national soccer squad, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena deftly dribbled round the weekend’s countless pitfalls to put their rivals on the wrong foot as they powered home to victory with their Citroën C4 WRC. During Thursday’s shakedown session, as guest passenger alongside Seb, ’El Pibe de Oro’ had been able to see at first hand that the defending World Champion is not just strong technically but also that it’s not only with a ball that a top sportsman can juggle!

One of the challenges faced by Seb over the three days was having to run on Pirelli tyres which, in keeping with the regulations, turned out to be too hard for the wet conditions. Along with near-zero grip, crews often had to contend with extremely low visibility, too, so it’s no surprise that Sébastien and Daniel were delighted with their 39th world class win. "Believe me, it wasn’t easy," admitted Seb. "Given the delicate conditions, we had to stay doubly concentrated from start to finish. We also benefited from a faultless performance from our Citroën C4 which was once again competitive and reliable. Before coming here, we had been hoping that Rally Argentina would enable us to take the lead in the Drivers championship and score points for Citroën, and that’s what we’ve done!" Today’s result is Citroën’s fifth straight success in Argentina, while Sébastien has become the most successful driver ever on the South American fixture with a score of four consecutive wins to his name.

"It would have been so easy to get caught out," remarked Dani Sordo before the podium ceremony. "It really has been a difficult event: a single bend could have compromised all the good work put in by everyone in the team and the chance for Citroën to close the gap in the championship. I am please to have finished third and my times were on a par with what I was hoping for."

With two cars on the podium, Sébastien Loeb now on top of the Drivers’ championship and Citroën closer to the lead in the Manufacturers’ standings, Olivier Quesnel was also understandably delighted with the way the weekend turned out. "It’s an excellent result for us. When you see how the event unfolded, it clearly wasn’t an easy rally, yet both our crews figured amongst the few who didn’t put a foot wrong. Apart from the steering rack problem which slowed Dani on Friday, we didn’t have any mechanical trouble either. The combination of two such sure-footed drivers and the reliability of the C4 has enabled us to go top in the Drivers’ standings and also make up much of our deficit in the Manufacturers’ points table. It’s now up to us to keep up the hard work in order to leave nothing to chance with a view to repeating the same sort of performance in Jordan, which is the next round. I would also like to congratulate Conrad Rautenbach and David Senior whose fine run took them to fourth overall with their Citroën C4 WRC run by PH Sport with support from Citroën Sport Technologies technicians. Conrad scored his first WRC points in an event that was far from straightforward given the conditions."
-Citroen WRC

Citroen WRC Team partners with Red Bull

Citroën Sport is pleased to announce the arrival of Red Bull as a new partner of its programme with the Citroën C4 WRC and its crews Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena and Dani Sordo/Marc Marti in the FIA World Rally Championship.

Citroen C4 WRC

It is the combination of the Citroën brand’s international reputation, Team Citroën Total’s outstanding performance record and the exceptional personality of the drivers (three Manufacturers’ titles, plus four consecutive world titles for Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena) that perfectly matches the vision of Red Bull creator and global leader of the energy drinks market which is looking at developing closer ties with the French market.

Citroën Sport Director Olivier Quesnel is delighted with this association which will begin from the very next round of the 2008 World Rally Championship, Rally Argentina (March 27-30). "We are extremely happy to have this exciting new opportunity to work with such a dynamic company as Red Bull. The images of our respective firms are very complementary and this partnership will be beneficial since it slots in perfectly with rally sport and with Citroën, which is a particularly active brand."

Citroen C4 WRC

Red Bull GmbH is based in Fuschl am See, near Salzburg in Austria, and is present in more than 130 countries across the world. The philosophy behind Red Bull’s partnerships in the world of sport is based on building strong associations with sportsmen and women who excel in their particular domains.

Red Bull joins Team Citroën-Total’s existing partners for 2008, namely Pirelli, Le Coq Sportif, Eurodatacar, Citroën Financement, Magneti-Marelli, Sabelt, Transalliance, OZ Racing and Météo France Sports.

-Citroën Sports

Toyota's back in the WRC in the S2000 category

The FIA confirmed last Friday (24 November) that the Toyota Corolla-based Super 2000 car has been homologated and will therefore be available for competition on Wales Rally GB, where Alister McRae has been entered in an example.



Delays in the homologation application have occurred due to a variety of reasons, not least the newness of the S2000 formula. These led to delays in official acceptance of the car since it was first presented to the FIA in the summer. However, local rules had allowed the car to compete since early 2005 in its native country.



McRae's car is being run on the Wales Rally GB by RED and is the first Super 2000 to run on an FIA World Rally Championship event in Central Europe, although two Fiat Punto Super 2000 cars took part in Turkey. From the start of 2007, Super 2000 cars will be eligible to compete in the Production car World Rally Championship, competing against the Mitsubishis and the Subarus.

McRae completed a two-day test of the Corolla and said he was pleased with the outcome, working to adapt the car's set-up to suit Welsh forests as opposed to blind rallying found in South Africa. He and the team will be looking to assess the car's competitiveness against the Group N runners, including the British Rally Championship field and several P-WRC regulars.

-FIA WRC

Citroen returns to WRC in 2007

After a full season of absence this year, Citroen once again has announced formally that it will come back to the WRC in 2007. Citroen has been very busy developing their new breed of rally car, the C4 WRC, as a replacement to the highly successful Xsara WRC. Sebastien Loeb has been very much involved with developing of what is to become his next rally car in the 2008 season, after he and co-driver Daniel Elena, has been reserved the seats for one of the two manufacturer scoring cars. The other seat goes to Dani Sordo and Marc Marti, who were also nominated to score points in Japan this year.

The exciting part of this news is how ready is the C4? Is it tough enough, worthy to be named as successor to the Xsara? The Xsara was way successful already, and a proof to that, Kronos is running a Xsara that is mostly 2005 spec. Yet, Ford and Subaru is having a hard time outscoring Citroen for manufacturer's title in the WRC, with their new,totally re-engineered 2006 spec cars.

Citroen's success in 2005 as a manufacturer team, and this year under the private team of Kronos, can all be attributed to a well-engineered car, and a very skilled driver in the person of Loeb. If the C4 performs as well, Citroen is set to dominate the WRC for the next season, with Loeb and Elena adding a lot of points to their record, as they are now the most succesful driver and co-driver in the entire history of the WRC. We'll see how this new machine perform against the Fords and the Subarus, and later with Suzukis. Monte Carlo will be waiting.