2018 Teams

[CWJ]

5. Citroen tested for Wales Rally GB in France, on dry dusty gravel. Matton: 'It's very expensive to test in Welsh forests...' He's a a joke.

Well lets say the one who is responsible for budget and results should make the decision. And, under the line, what would be different in results, positions and championship standings from that? Nothing?

[mknight]

5. Citroen tested for Wales Rally GB in France, on dry dusty gravel. Matton: 'It's very expensive to test in Welsh forests...'

He's a a joke.

They did the same with Mikkelsen testing for Sardinia, 1 day test on gravel in France with no setup changes.

Anyway I wouldn't really rate this as management issue that much. As CWJ wrote, nothing would have changed if they placed 1-2 places higher in Wales. If it really was expensive it's better to use the money for further development rather than testing for the one specific gravel rally.

[car]

Well in at least two articles after Germany Matton said how focused they were only on getting Ogier and that it was the reason why they let Mikkelsen go.

If they now don't get Ogier either it will be one more item on the list of his fails this year. Let's list the main ones:

1. Didn't get any of the 3 VW drivers (and said he was not interested in Latvala or Mikkelsen at all), now out of those 3:
- Ogier won the championship
- Latvala was 4th, while Citroen main driver will be 6th or 7th
- Mikkelsen was taken into the team 6 months later and first after he came changes on the car were made, he also gave the team one of the 3 podiums

Meanwhile out of his 3 drivers, one driver got 8 crashes in 11 rallies, another got 4 crashes in 7 rallies and has only shown decent speed in a single rally

2. Came with a twitchy car on gravel after a year of preparation

3. Arrived in Monte and Sweden "without a good setup" (his own words)

4. His coaching of Meeke after Corsica "Kris should focus on getting single rally wins and not on championship", resulted in 4 DNFs with multiple destroyed cars and his main driver benched.

I really do wonder how he convinces his bosses that he is the right man for the job.

Very well said, I’ve often thought just how much pressure this guy is actually under, given how he seems to manage the team.
If this was Ferrari he would have been fired about four times by now.
Makes me think he might be away at the season end.
I know Meeke wasn’t performing too well, but dropping him was ruthless and, like you pointed out, had a massively negative impact on his next few results. I just don’t get that if I can see how plainly obvious the outcome to such a situation is likely to be, why the hell can’t the guy who’s paid a lot of money to manage the team see the same thing?
Shocking man-management!
Also, the car is a shit box. I know I’ll get shot down by those on this site who think this sounds stupid, but I actually think you can see by looking at the photos that it looks too heavy over the rear of the car and it certainly handles pretty bad in the flesh (I know this contradicts the fact that Meeke said the car felt good this last weekend, but I honestly think he was being diplomatic to protect the brand. I watched that car in the stages a few times last weekend and the back just comes round way too fast. I was stood on a steep Bank in Dyfnant, looking down (and from the side) of the cars as they came from left to right and they were all in fifth or possibly sixth. Most of the cars seemed to handle at the mercy of their drivers and pick a (straightish) line through the three or four switchback-corners, but the Citroen literally twitched from left to right really rapidly.
They have a lot of work or a complete redesign to do on that car...
Or they might even pull the plug before next year, given the money PSA will probably need to put aside if they are to be exposed in the dieselgate scandal.

[dimviii]

Colins kitchen table
https://youtu.be/rrbYNzYzDsw

[mknight]

Colins kitchen table
https://youtu.be/rrbYNzYzDsw

Well he voices what I wrote here as early as February when I compared them with 2008 Subaru, that Citroen's future might be in trouble. Cause if they don't get Ogier they won't have realistic chances for manu champs, even with 5-6 rallies with Loeb.

Other than that (and the talk about Ogier) he does seem a bit "blinded by the GB-factor," most notably:

- saying Evans would have won in Wales even on Michelins
- saying that Evans will charge for title next year no matter what team he drives for
and
- that M-Sport/Ford with Ogier+Evans+Suninen will be favorites for manu champ next year, imo both Toyota and Hyundai look stronger on paper.

[Simmi]

So is it now fair to say, the best WRC driver without a win is... Craig Breen.

A guy with 16 factory WRC starts. Nice situation.

There are rally winners everywhere you look now. And I deliberately haven't mentioned Hanninen as he won't be in the sport next year.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Well lets say the one who is responsible for budget and results should make the decision. And, under the line, what would be different in results, positions and championship standings from that? Nothing?

Missed the point completely. If Matton had anything about him he'd be insisting on the testing being held in the right place. Citroen will never be successful again with this current weak management.

[denkimi]

So is it now fair to say, the best WRC driver without a win is... Craig Breen.

A guy with 16 factory WRC starts. Nice situation.

There are rally winners everywhere you look now. And I deliberately haven't mentioned Hanninen as he won't be in the sport next year.

don't worry. sordo had to wait 95 wrc rally's for his first win.

[tomhlord]

Colins kitchen table
https://youtu.be/rrbYNzYzDsw

It's true, Gerard Quinn being on the podium in team kit was very interesting indeed. https://twitter.com/WRCgerardquinn/s...73886018691072

Colin speculates that's it's Ford of Europe potentially offering funding to secure Ogier. That's a different pot of money than the ex-WRX Block Ford Performance money.

[Simmi]

Gerard seems like a rally guy through and through though. Doesn't seem like he needs any convincing to go to events and be a part of it. It's his bosses that will need their arm twisting. It does seem that Ford of Europe would be the best way forward, as opposed to Ford Performance.

I don't think the Americans care about WRC or marketing the Fiesta one bit.