Citroen WRT

[ESTR]

M-Sport was a private team and a much different situation. Anyway I think he is talking about who decided to use such a limited budget for a factory team. Everybody is happy they are there but it's ridiculous they're trying to save money everywhere while other are making proper investments for a WRC manufacturer.

Like I understand from that article from some boss from Citroen (I don't know her name & it doesn't matter) is that they don't need big budget to get recognition. That include Ogier or Mikkelsen. And a permanent third car. Their C3 is selling good despite their bad season and last place and now the slowest car currently. They are following last year's private achievement with low budget (for me quite stupid answer). They need to first build strong competitive car (driveable), then compare to others.

[er88]

M-Sport was a private team and a much different situation. Anyway I think he is talking about who decided to use such a limited budget for a factory team. Everybody is happy they are there but it's ridiculous they're trying to save money everywhere while other are making proper investments for a WRC manufacturer.

Fact is a lot of the budget is made up of Sheikh Khalid's money too, so the actual money Citroen is putting in is low compared to the other teams.

They've tried to do it on the cheap, hence the reason they took risks in engineering and designing the car to try and save money and cut corners.

However with Meeke being able to win rallies last season and help create good enough publicity, it's clear from what Linda Jackson has been saying that they feel they get enough out of the WRC. Especially for the financial commitment they make.

And in their eyes this year, why run 3 cars? Even if they bring the budget to run 3 cars in every event, they still wouldn't win the manufactures title. I mean Ostberg, Tidemand, Lefebrve or whoever else they could sign as 3rd driver, wouldn't elevate them to potential champions. Ostberg will only contest more rallies in a 3 car if he brings budget to pay for it. So just run two cars on most rounds, and hopefully they push some of the left over budget into extra testing and development which is what they need for that car (as has been shown yet again in Monte...)

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[Rally Power]

M-Sport was a private team and a much different situation. Anyway I think he is talking about who decided to use such a limited budget for a factory team. Everybody is happy they are there but it's ridiculous they're trying to save money everywhere while other are making proper investments for a WRC manufacturer.

Obviously the situation is far from ideal, but it seems too harsh call it ridiculous, especially at this point of the season. Again: if their choice was between continuing in the series with a smaller budget or to pull out, I’m glad they’ve choose the first.

They've tried to do it on the cheap, hence the reason they took risks in engineering and designing the car to try and save money and cut corners.

I don't believe the tech issues were result of having more or less money than the others (wealthy manus making crap cars is not rare in motorsport) and what has been talked is this year unexpected budget cut (possibly linked to PSA overall situation after Opel buy).

[T16]

[QUOTE=er88;1171150]Fact is a lot of the budget is made up of Sheikh Khalid's money too, so the actual money Citroen is putting in is low compared to the other teams.

They've tried to do it on the cheap, hence the reason they took risks in engineering and designing the car to try and save money and cut corners.

Are you sure that they took risks in design and engineering because they tried to do it on the cheap? or did they just build a crap car? Without sounding funny, I'm guessing you haven't got car-budget development comparisons for the different teams?

[ESTR]

[QUOTE=T16;1171155]

Fact is a lot of the budget is made up of Sheikh Khalid's money too, so the actual money Citroen is putting in is low compared to the other teams.

They've tried to do it on the cheap, hence the reason they took risks in engineering and designing the car to try and save money and cut corners.

Are you sure that they took risks in design and engineering because they tried to do it on the cheap? or did they just build a crap car? Without sounding funny, I'm guessing you haven't got car-budget development comparisons for the different teams?

Hyundai I believe have greatest budget and probably spend way more for development than it's rivals last year. But we all know where this goes.

[Mirek]

Citrën openly admits that this year they are the team with the lowest budget.

[mknight]

[QUOTE=ESTR;1171164]

Hyundai I believe have greatest budget and probably spend way more for development than it's rivals last year. But we all know where this goes.

Judging by test kms Citroen used most money for 2017 car development before start of the season. (Ignoring VW). Hyundai was next. (There is a table showing "official" test km before 2017 start)

During first half of 2017 Hyundai and Toyota looked similarly committed, but from mid-2017 it seems like Toyota is the biggest spender.

(This is just my speculation based on visible number of testing days)

[ESTR]

[QUOTE=mknight;1171177]

Judging by test kms Citroen used most money for 2017 car development before start of the season. (Ignoring VW). Hyundai was next. (There is a table showing "official" test km before 2017 start)

During first half of 2017 Hyundai and Toyota looked similarly committed, but from mid-2017 it seems like Toyota is the biggest spender.

(This is just my speculation based on visible number of testing days)

Compare to Hyundai they include 3rd car from portugal. Then send only two cars to Australia later on. And Hyundai is not somehow commited. Oh yeas they have 4 drivers under contract (Mikkelsen probably isn't cheapest).

[mknight]

Yes that's some good points. Toyota focused the budget more on development at the second half of last year while Hyundai got Mikkelsen and 4 cars in GB to try to get title(s).

Still so far this year it does not seem like there is a big budget difference between them (and if then not in favor of Hyundai). Impossible to know for sure of course.

Anyway it also matters a lot how you use the money. As mentioned it looked like Citroen had ample funds during C3 development. But they choose not use the money on experienced (development) drivers, which in hindsight might have been clever.

[Franky]

Anyway it also matters a lot how you use the money. As mentioned it looked like Citroen had ample funds during C3 development. But they choose not use the money on experienced (development) drivers, which in hindsight might have been clever.

As I've understood, then when it comes to French teams, the engineers are the kings and the drivers can f...