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Thread: Citroen WRT
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6th October 2017, 08:56 #871
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7th October 2017, 03:35 #872
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I'm in Suzuka for the F1, donning my Citroen WRC hat as you do, trecking round to my seat and some lady shouts over in Japanese, "Citroen are last you know!" Um, thanks for the reminder... Hopefully there's some good news gonna come in from the other side of the planet
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7th October 2017, 11:43 #873
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Kris Meeke explains Citroen’s 2017 problems
Citroen’s troubled WRC lead driver, Kris Meeke, told WRC Live Radio his opinions on why 2017 has been such a bad season for Citroen Racing, most of all for his poor results so far.
“What we need in the team is a bit of stability and now we have Christophe Besse, our new Technical Director. I knew him from when he was at Citroen before,” Meeke said.
“He’s been away in racing and has come back to rallies. He seems to be quite a calming influence in the engineering side of things. But generally in the team, with drivers chopped and changed in the middle of the year and nobody knows what’s happening, it just affects the spirit, it affects the moral.
“I just want the stability and to feel confident again. We still have work to do, but the important thing is to try to feel comfortable. It comes from everything.
“In fact if you’re confident in your car, it breeds confidence in the team, confidence starts from there. There are certain reasons why we don’t feel confident. When things have been chopped and changed without big reason you don’t really know what’s happening or who’s in control.
“Corsica and Germany showed how quick it (the car) can be on asphalt. The car’s fast on gravel too, we led in Portugal, we led in Sardinia, we were running just behind Elfyn (Evans) in Argentina before we had our problems.
“There have been lots of different issues. The nervousness of the car hasn’t been our main problem this year. There are times when it makes a mistake, and all the time I’ve purely been to blame for a mistake. There have been a few mechanical troubles.
“Every driver who has driven the car on gravel has said they don’t feel secure when they’re driving it. You need a car that’s wrapped around you. When you are going through the stage you need the car doing what you tell it, and not the car telling you what it’s going to do. That’s a tricky situation.
“When we were able to get a result doesn’t mean that everything’s perfect, but it gives certain people within the team the chance to say everything’s fine. We just need a calm approach, get the confidence back and continue to analyse how we can give ourselves more confidence on the gravel, and create a bigger operating window.
“Christophe has only been in his job full time in the last two to three weeks, but it is not one thing which has been our issue all year. We’ve had quite a few mechanical troubles, I’ve made some mistakes, and we just need to work through things and get more confidence with the car in certain conditions.”
https://rallysportmag.com/kris-meeke...2017-problems/Last edited by dimviii; 7th October 2017 at 11:45.
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7th October 2017, 16:37 #874
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The "chopping and changing of drivers in the middle of the year" happened after:
- Citroen had no good setup for both Monte and Sweden (their words)
- Lefebvre crashed in all 4 of his C3 outings, each and every time while way off pace
- Meeke crashed 4 times in 3 rallies in a row
Yep it likely created quite some chaos in the team. Lets hope things calm down and they also get an additional reliable and fast driver so that they are not dead-last in the manu champs next year. Otherwise the future of the team is in doubt as their main sponsor (Abu Dhabi) already pointed out.Last edited by mknight; 7th October 2017 at 16:55.
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7th October 2017, 18:09 #875
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28th October 2017, 07:16 #876
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Loeb said on Red Bull TV that he hasn't yet checked which rallies clash with his rallycross plans. Apparently he could do all WRC events except Sardegna and Deutschland. And perhaps Silk Way Rally clashes with Rally Finland.
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31st October 2017, 12:14 #877
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bring back acropolis rally to wrc calendar
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2nd November 2017, 19:15 #878
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Yep, there’s no doubt Citroen WRC situation is hard to understand, but is Matton the only one to blame?
Citroen (for sure not Matton) decided to quit WTCC (where they dominated, having a much bigger budget than competition) to focus on WRC. Without delays, they started, under new tech chief Fregosi supervision, the C3 design, testing and developing with Meeke as an experienced driver and the other two already used to the team. All reports during 2016 tests indicated the car potential was great and all drivers seemed happy. So, why bother to sign Ogier?
Then ’17 season started and the team fall apart: the car ends to be a piece of junk; Fregosi is totally lost; Meeke goes into Kamikaze mode; Breen struggles to get into top 5; Lefebvre is a waste and Matton starts to sound desperate...Fregosi is fired, Meeke is send to rest, Mikkelsen is called to give a hand (mainly to prove the car is a crap) but he’s not kept as all current drivers will be somehow maintaned in 2018 and Ogier becomes Citroen only option for a new sign, according to Matton. At the same time Loeb unexpectedly resurfaces, with the team (Mrs. Jackson included) saying he can run some events next year...
Now, despite PSA being Europe’s 2nd largest manu and Abu Dhabi wealthy support, the word is they have no budget to hire Ogier...honestly, we’ll we ever know what the heck is going on and who’s really in charge?Last edited by Rally Power; 2nd November 2017 at 19:22.
Rally addict since 1982
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2nd November 2017, 21:07 #879
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Most likely not, but there are a few things Matton cloud totally be blamed for:
1. The 3 drivers were arguably not the best choice to develop a completely new car
- Breen and Lefevbre had minimal experience in WRC car at that point.
- Meeke drove DS3 a lot, Mini for 1 year (not exactly epic car) and then S11 Impreza in the old days. He might not be very good at developing/setup (bringing DS3 to pre-event tests multiple times for comparison). Then again he might be very good but the development team did not listen to him (also some indications of that)... then this lack of communication is also Matton's fault.
There should have been some experienced driver to help with development (for example Hirvonen, P. Solberg .... or Loeb!), I have not heard of anyone doing that.
2. Matton refused to let Ogier even test the C3 in 2016
My theory on that is that Matton though C3 was epic, but did no have money for Ogier and though the car was so good that his lineup is enough. This would kind of reinforce point 1.
That means over-confidence. Surely even if he would not sign for them Ogier would give them some feedback relative to 2017 Polo. and if he was so impressed he'd sing with lower salary anyway?
3. What happened after Germany - If he lets Mikkelsen go to focus on Ogier he better be damn sure that he gets him. That does not seem to be the case.
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2nd November 2017, 21:40 #880
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I think if they had let Loeb drive it near the start, most of this rubbish could have been avoided. If he had fed back that it was too nervous and hard to drive I am sure he would have been believed, and they would have acted on the issues quicker. From the outside it looks like they believed the engineer over the drivers until Mikkelsen had a go in it and said it was crap. It was only then that things started to happen.
I don't know what to think about the budget stuff, I'm not sure I believe that they don't have any or why quit the WTCC and come to WRC? makes no sense.
Yes I fear so too, you just need to look at the new cost for tourists to get into Venice and when everyone sees the amount of money being made others will soon follow, and prices will go up. As...
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