Citroen WRT

[Munkvy]

Makes you wonder what it will take to get Loeb back in the car for a day or two...?

[seb_sh]

Makes you wonder what it will take to get Loeb back in the car for a day or two...?

I doubt getting any driver for a day or two would help that much. Latvala did a massive amount of km last year with the Yaris in order to improve it. Even if you argue Loeb or whoever is so much better at setup it will still take him at least a few days to get a base setup and understand the car and then subsequent tests to come up with improvement ideas and verify them.

About Citroen, in general it's way late but at least Matton admitted he has to change something, but as others have pointed out the whole venture was not the best organised. I'm not sure how many drivers helped develop the car but if you look at all the other teams they had several drivers drive the cars at various points whereas at Citroen it seems it was mainly Meeke.

[AnttiL]

Citroen has had a different driver/car line-up for every rally now

Monte: Meeke&Lefebvre C3, Breen DS3
Sweden: Meeke&Breen C3, Levebvre DS3
Mexico: Meeke&Lefebvre C3
Corsica: Meeke&Breen&Lefebvre C3
Argentina: Meeke&Breen C3
Portugal: Meeke&Breen&Lefebvre&Al-Qassimi C3
Sardinia: Meeke&Breen&Mikkelsen C3
Poland: Mikkelsen&Breen&Lefebvre C3

perhaps again something different for Finland? Maybe the normal three drivers and Mikkelsen in fourth car?

[EstWRC]

And to think they spent a year getting ready so they could dominate in 2017; then turned up to Monte not ready.......

THIS! i just don get it what has happened, the car looked great in testing videos and they were testing their asses off. Every time Meeke contested last year he repeated: "Just wait till you see me in the 17 car".

what has happened between the end of the last season and beginning of this season? something must have gone so wrong.

and now to dump Meeke for poland is idiotic IMO. i dont see how he will be getting better sitting a round out. They should dump Lefebvre or put him in the 16 car.

but what do i know.

[AnttiL]

and now to dump Meeke for poland is idiotic IMO. i dont see how he will be getting better sitting a round out. They should dump Lefebvre or put him in the 16 car.

there's clear logic in this: Meeke didn't contest in Poland last year, but Breen and Lefebvre did, and set some decent times there. Meanwhile, it also makes sense to put Mikkelsen in one of the cars, because he won the event last year.

My own idea is that perhaps Citroen's budget is running out and they cannot afford anymore crashes? We must remember that in addition to Meeke's rolls, Lefebvre has had a crash of some sort in all his events of this year. Maybe that's why Mikkelsen was so cautious, he was told to make sure the car finishes? or he was promised a new drive if he finishes?

[EstWRC]

ok fair enough. i didnt remember that he didnt contest in poland last year but i still think it wont change much. i really hope it does

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Citroen driver transition: Meekelsen...

[Rally Power]

The Dakar program was basically saved by Jean-Claude Vaucard (designer of Xsara WRC and 205 T16 among others), who worked with them for a week, pointed out what they should change, and then left. They did 80% of what he required for 2016, and the remaining things fo this year. Point is, they won after he had his input on the car. So hopefully Citroën can get him in on a similar deal like that.

Interesting! No idea that JC Vaucard played a major role on the 2008 evolution (thought it was mainly due to Peterhansel efforts). He’s a remarkable technician and like you’ve said it’d be great to see him giving a hand to Citroen, ASAP.

Still, I believe Citroen should do everything to get Ogier next year; he’s really a game changer.

[GigiGalliNo1]

Very embarrassing for the team and drivers

[br21]

One thing is sure - it shows how valuable is to judge the performance of the cars from testing videos))