Citroen's Biggest Mistake

Citroen's Biggest Mistake

Image Source: http://www.first4auto.com/slender-lead-for-volkswagen-driver-sebastien-ogier-in-portugal/

Red is a colour current Citroen Racing boss Yves Matton has been used to evoking emotions of love, passion, success and victory. For nearly a decade Citroen World Rally Team’s dominance of the World Rally Championship had been indisputable. Before Sebastien Loeb won his first drivers championship in 2004, a hat-trick of rally wins was news paper worthy and a career winning total of 23 rallies made you the best in the business. Oh, how Sebastien Loeb and Citroen have changed the face of rally.

Colin McRae became the most successful rally driver in history achieving 23 rally wins after a hat-trick ending in Greece, 2001.  In comparison Sebastien Loeb has since achieved 78 wins, with a win streak of 6 in 2005 and 5 in 2006,2008,2009 and 2012. Wow.

But now Yves is being forced to see Red in a different light. This new shade represents frustration and disappointment. With the knowledge that 2012 was to be Loeb’s last full time year in the WRC Citroen recruited Mikko Hirvonen/Jamo Lehtinen and Dani Sordo/Carlos del Barrio to remain competitive. Now at the midpoint of the season, Mikko and Dani have struggled to bank consistent results for their team. Citroen are currently second in the manufacturer’s championship having only won only two rallies this year, both of which were won by semi-retired Sebastian Loeb. This is the first year in a nearly a decade that Citroen Racing has not dominated the drivers or manufacturers championship. Over the past nine years Citroen have utilised the consistency and outright pace of drivers like Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae and Sebastien Ogier in combination with Sebastien Loeb to dominate both championships. So what happened? 

In 2011 Sebastien Ogier was promoted to Citroen WRT for what was arguably the team’s most successful year. Loeb and Ogier won five rallies each and Loeb went on to win his eighth consecutive drivers’ title. Any spectator would be forgiven for thinking that Citroen had another eight years of domination ahead of them. But behind 2011’s success there were team orders that caused the team to come unstuck. During the season both Loeb and Ogier had been on the raw end of team tactics and it became apparent that both Sebastiens had begun to feel threatened by one another. At the end of the year the top three drivers were only separated by 26 points – just over a single rally’s points haul.

Sebastien Ogier left Citroen at the end of 2011, still with two years left on his contract (Elizalde, 2011). Considering that Ogier was handpicked and groomed by Citroen WRT after winning the JWRC in 2008, this was pretty surprising. Whether Citroen showed Ogier the door or he left of his own accord, an uncharacteristic combination of mismanagement and short-sightedness left Citroen without their future star. Sebastien Loeb was nearing retirement and they had lost their most significant investment.

Sebastien Ogier under pressure from Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila on the last stage of Rally New Zealand 2010. This mistake and a spin approaching the finish cost Ogier the rally by 2.4 seconds.

Sebastien Ogier was immediately signed by Volkswagen, spending all of 2012 developing their new Polo R WRC and competing in a Skoda Fabia S2000 in the SWRC. Needless to say, Volkswagen’s development went well. Sebastien Ogier even made history whilst absent from the WRC by setting a stage time faster than all other turbo-charged WRC cars in the normally aspirated Skoda. By the time development had finished his blood must have been boiling at the chance of returning to WRC competition! Now half way through the season Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala have taken over the winning persistence of Citroen and look unbeatable. Citroen’s decision to stop working with Sebastien Ogier has been their biggest mistake. It has compromised the strength of their team and quite possibly their ability to deliver a drivers or manufacturers championship win in 2013. For the second half of the year Yves will be hoping his Citroens will play the part of El Matador and lure the charging Red Bull Volkswagen’s in a direction other than the finish line. 

Then Red will have a new meaning for Yves altogether.