Citroen WRT

[tomhlord]

Didn't Xavier Mestelan Pinon, the man who was the lead on the previous WRC and WTCC efforts, go and work in Formula E instead?

[Rally Power]

Ah so Citroen do have problems...I thought it was all made up by British journalists....

Since Italy it become obvious the C3 has major problems. No point to elude neither them nor Meeke's driving issues, which are known from a long time.

More than keep playing a blaming game, what any rally fan can wish is that Citroen is able to fix the car or start to draw ASAP a new one for 2018.

I've mentioned Peugeot case before: the initial '15 Dakar proto was a flop but they didn't spend much time trying to improve it; they've choose to design a new car for '16 and it became a winning machine. Probably that's what Citroen needs to do.

[TWRC]

Didn't Xavier Mestelan Pinon, the man who was the lead on the previous WRC and WTCC efforts, go and work in Formula E instead?

Yes, but his replacement was said to have been involved since the C4 WRC days, so...
What struck me today was when Mikkelsen said that the setup they worked on during testing (in the dry) is not good for the wet. How could they think it was going to be? Looking at onboards from SS2, his car seems to be much much harder set up than ie. Ogier's...

[Sulland]

Ah so Citroen do have problems...I thought it was all made up by British journalists....

So fake news on both sides of the Atlantic puddle then!!!!???
Who will tweet Trump to give him a heads up?

[Lousada]

You don't know what Meeke reported in testing and how Citroen responded. I suspect a certain amount of engineering arrogance may have gone down along the way.

Which again shows a lot about Meeke if even his own engineers do not take him seriously and do not listen to him. But then again that is probably not what happened.

[itix]

Which again shows a lot about Meeke if even his own engineers do not take him seriously and do not listen to him. But then again that is probably not what happened.

What is definitely clear is that everyone, including Citroen, pre season, thought they had the best car, and what is obvious now is that on gravel, so far, the car is a disappointment pace wise other than Meeke who gets the set up right and then over drive it and crash.

My guess, like most people, is that it is likely damper related considering that they seem to have pace on tarmac rounds where it is less important.

[Mirek]

How about to stop the useless blame talk? None of us knows how it was.

[Simmi]

It will be interesting to see if Mikkelsen starts to get a handle on the car, but perhaps the changes he influenced end up moving it out of the comfort zone of Meeke and Breen. Future events will tell better with more normal conditions. And he could still end up leaving the team after Germany. Would be quite ironic.

[tomhlord]

What is definitely clear is that everyone, including Citroen, pre season, thought they had the best car, and what is obvious now is that on gravel, so far, the car is a disappointment pace wise

Good point. None of the teams really knew where they sat pace-wise pre-season.

[Norm75]

What is definitely clear is that everyone, including Citroen, pre season, thought they had the best car, and what is obvious now is that on gravel, so far, the car is a disappointment pace wise other than Meeke who gets the set up right and then over drive it and crash.

My guess, like most people, is that it is likely damper related considering that they seem to have pace on tarmac rounds where it is less important.

Or aero, or possibly a combination of both.

Seems to me the C3 doesn't look as efficient in aero department, not that I'm an expert, but there is an old saying that if it looks right, it probably is right.

What I have found, as a basic road car the C3 has the worst aero efficiency of the four cars the wrc cars are based on.
Citroen C3 0.307
Ford Fiesta 0.287
Toyota Yaris 0.29
Hyundai i20 coupe 0.3

Ok, the last two I have not found exact figures for, and the Hyundai, which appears to be the best car this year so far is closer than the rest in coefficiency figures, but it does look more aggressively styled at the front.