Citroens Future....

[BertMk2]

So Citroen has made its decision:

2016 - WTTC no WRC
2017 - WRC no WTCC

So the WTCC squad gets another year and then gets the plug pulled whilst Citroen takes a year out of the WRC to develop its 'next-gen' WRC car ready for the 2017 season.

Interesting call and has to be good news for the WRC in the long term.

Official announcement here:

http://www.citroenracing.com/en/2015...orting-future/

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Interesting call and has to be good news for the WRC in the long term.

Yeah, it certainly ups the excitement for the 2017 season and beyond: Citroen (hopefully) competitive again, VW, Ford, Hyundai and the return of Toyota.

Short term negative is that is seems highly likely the 2016 season will be a VW whitewash. I personally think that's a price worth paying for seeing a decent debut season for the new WRCars.

I wonder where this leaves Meeke and Ostberg in 2016? Will they be retained by Citroen purely for testing, will Citroen allow them to race elsewhere for a year or will they completely let them go?

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Yeah, it certainly ups the excitement for the 2017 season and beyond: Citroen (hopefully) competitive again, VW, Ford, Hyundai and the return of Toyota.

I just hope that the new cars are up to it - we want more power than grip, lots of sideways! Are M-Sport developing a Fiesta for 2017? I don't think I've seen anything about that anywhere.

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Short term negative is that is seems highly likely the 2016 season will be a VW whitewash. I personally think that's a price worth paying for seeing a decent debut season for the new WRCars.

Agreed - next season is pretty much a dead loss. Just give Ogier the title now and be done with it.

Originally Posted by tbtstt

I wonder where this leaves Meeke and Ostberg in 2016? Will they be retained by Citroen purely for testing, will Citroen allow them to race elsewhere for a year or will they completely let them go?

Presumably Citroen will retain at least one driver for testing (and may use Loeb as well?). Also is it possible that we'd see this years cars run as a privateer effort next season (as they did before with the Xsaras)?

[crossfades]

Østberg will probably leave but Meeke might stay according to this

http://www.autosport.com/news/report...medium=twitter

[Alex Langheck]

Well Citroen have seen sense, and the WRC is their long term goal, and the WTCC is to be dropped - quite right too, an awful series.

Not only that, but Loeb has finally cut his ties with Citroen and signed for Peugeot - not a 'loan' as before; though they are both PSA group.

As for 2017, we'll have VW, Hyundai & Citroen. Toyota I'm not sure about, seems to be quite a mess developing. As for M-Sport, who knows? With Ford in the WEC and TUSC with the new GT, that is now their main Motorsport programme.

[chunder]

It seems form various sources that Seb was dropped, not the other way round. Or that might just be spin.

Citroen are probably doing what they did in WTCC (what a farce that series is), spending a year testing a car built to the new regs so they can get a head start. Whether Seb would want anything to do with this I don't know, depends how much he wants to beat Ogier. If it happens it would be good, but it might take him time to get up to speed again.

As for the others, Can't see Hyundai doing much, car seems a poor design, bit like Suzuki was. I am impressed with PAddon though, he loks the real deal. Feel sorry for them, they have gone for youth and its sad it hasnt really worked out. Ford have flattered to deceive for a generation now, and Toyota who knows really, Not TTE is it, so likely to be a bit of a Suzuki or Hyundai deal I think.

Citroen will do what they did with the Xsara, go with some equivalent like Dmax or Grifone to run their cars for a year, will still develop them, but are probably avoiding paying all sorts of reg fees and the like doing it this way.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by chunder

It seems form various sources that Seb was dropped, not the other way round. Or that might just be spin.

He certainly seemed surprised he wasn't getting a WTCC drive next year - that should have been the 3rd year of the '3 year plan'.

Originally Posted by chunder

Citroen are probably doing what they did in WTCC (what a farce that series is), spending a year testing a car built to the new regs so they can get a head start.

They may need it - Volkswagen are already running their 2017 test mules.

Originally Posted by chunder

Whether Seb would want anything to do with this I don't know, depends how much he wants to beat Ogier. If it happens it would be good, but it might take him time to get up to speed again.

I'm not sure Loeb will return to the WRC (beyond maybe the occasional appearance - Monte Carlo?). He really has nothing to gain by coming back - if he wins then the "it's not as strong as it used to be" argument will be rolled out and if he doesn't win then it'll be "he only won the titles he did because it wasn't as strong as it used to be".

Originally Posted by chunder

As for the others, Can't see Hyundai doing much, car seems a poor design, bit like Suzuki was. I am impressed with PAddon though, he loks the real deal. Feel sorry for them, they have gone for youth and its sad it hasnt really worked out. Ford have flattered to deceive for a generation now, and Toyota who knows really, Not TTE is it, so likely to be a bit of a Suzuki or Hyundai deal I think.

Hyundai I think have done a good job but I don't think they've got the resources to compete with VW (or Citroen in 2017). Don't forget that Ford isn't Ford anymore - it's M-sport rather than a works team so again the budget just isn't there (but I like the M-sport approach - build versions of the car in all the various classes and sell them to help fund the WRC team). Toyota will be an interesting one - in theory they should be up there but again unless they commit the required resources they'll be fighting with Hyundai and M-Sport rather than VW and Citroen.

Originally Posted by chunder

Citroen will do what they did with the Xsara, go with some equivalent like Dmax or Grifone to run their cars for a year, will still develop them, but are probably avoiding paying all sorts of reg fees and the like doing it this way.

I hope so. Otherwise the field is going to be very thin next year - Meeke and Lefebvre for the 'not Citroen' drives?