[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[MikeD]

I think Peugeot will replace Citroen in the championship sooner than later. In the last couple of months we have seen an huge effort from Peugeot on offroad motorsport in general.

First they introduce the 208 R5, which looks competitive out of the box, and later they unveil their Dakar project, which leads me to believe that their motorsport budget is far from being small.

Maybe Peugeot left endurance circuit to focus entirely on rally and Dakar, and they will leave the circuits for Citroen.

To me Citroen cars were always the more "exclusive" side of PSA's technology, and circuits may suit there market's better. Peugeot was and still is in my heart that little crazy brother of Citroen, moche more extreme and rebelious. Peugeot is in my opinion mcuh more suitedited for extreme sports such as rally and off-road.

I agree.

PS: It's Citroën that's the smaller company of the two, so they would be the "little brother".

But one thing that's important to notice is that Citroën wanted to enter WTCC because of the global exposure to the right markets. For PSA it's still an issue that WRC is so focused on low growth (or even recession) countries in Europe. Only 3 rallies are outside Europe where Australis is one of them ... but it has no relevance to PSA. Mexico is good for PSA but Argentina isn't. The country has been in recession for 15 years or so because the two corrupt Kirchner idiots have ruined any chance of growth. Instead they steal foreign companies and make them goverend by the state (ref. to Repsol).
It's quite insane that WRC doesn't have a single round in Asia IMO. That might prevent Peugeot from entering...

PS: Please also notice that according to very reliable sources then both KIA and Alfa Romeo will join WTCC next year. That will give the series 6 manufacturers...