Citroën decision on WTCC or WRC due by the end of this year

Citroën Racing expect to make a decision on whether they will continue on in just the World Touring Car Championship or the World Rally Championship from 2017 onwards by the end of this year, with logistics, level of competition and the Chinese market the key factors for the French manufacturer.

On target to take their second consecutive drivers’ and manufacturers’ title in their second year in the WTCC, the French brand will drop one of its programmes from 2017 as part of a major restructure of Citroën Racing and Peugeot Sport, with the two sporting entities of PSA Peugeot Citroën united next year.

“In approximately one year, all the sporting activities will be on the same premises, and the idea is to have them all In the same place and as efficient as possible, but each brand will keep its own motorsport programme. The front office will be the same, it’s more the back office that will be put together,” said Citroën Racing team principal Yves Matton to TouringCarTimes.

“As Linda Jackson (Citroën brand director) said at Goodwood, it’s true that each brand will only have only one official programme, and for Citroën in 2017 it will be either touring cars or the World Rally Championship.”

Citroën has a number of variables to consider before it makes it decision on which programme in which to continue. The manufacturer is enjoying much success in its WTCC programme while its WRC programme has struggled since Sébastien Loeb retired from full-time competition at the end of 2012, but Citroën now has a long history in the WRC and the competition in the championship has increased in recent years with new programmes from Volkswagen, Hyundai and now Toyota in the category.

“(The key factors for us are) the number of events, that there is a Chinese event in the calendar and things like that. I hope we have answers to all the questions we have at the moment and to all the criteria we’ve put on the table, so we can make a choice before the end of this year,” added Matton.

“We know that there a lot of things are going on in touring cars to bring some new ideas into the championship. OK, we need to be sure that the business plan will stay as close as possible to the plan we made when we entered.

“If the future of the touring cars is not only sea freight like it was when we entered the discipline, it changes a lot of things for us for example, but with each discipline there are a lot of points which we will take into consideration.”

While WTCC is more cost effective than the WRC, with a shorter calendar and sea freight used to transport the cars and teams operations, a key concern for Citroën has been the level of competition since it joined in 2014, while adversely the ability to win in WRC the brand has clearly put down to the availability of drivers.

“If there is a lack in touring cars, for us it is the lack of manufacturers involved, but maybe it’ll be sorted in 2017,” said Matton. “The main lack in World Rally Championship is the number of drivers available to win some events, it’s quite different.

“It seems we will have a new manufacturer in touring cars next year which is very good. From what I’ve heard they will do things in a professional way so we’re very happy with that, and one thing that we expect is to have some manufacturers who are doing the job like we are doing the job, and to be able to fight with them.”