Citroën Junior Team

Citroën Junior Team
Full name Citroën Junior Team
Base France Versailles, France
Team principal(s) Benoit Nogier
Drivers Belgium Thierry Neuville
Co-drivers Belgium Nicholas Gilsoul
Chassis Citroën DS3 WRC
Tyres Michelin
World Rally Championship career
Debut 2009
Constructors' Championships 0
Drivers' Championships 0
Rally wins 1

The Citroën Junior Team is a World Rally Championship team, which competed in the 2009-2010 and 2012 seasons. It was set up and run as Citroën's secondary team in the World Rally Championship, pitched against the existing Stobart Ford World Rally Team.

The team was run by French preparation firm PH Sport along with Citroën Racing Technologies. It was revived in 2012.[1]

History

Background

PH Sport and Citroën Sport Technologies ran semi-privateer Citroën C4 WRCs for Conrad Rautenbach and Urmo Aava during the 2008 World Rally Championship season.[2]

2009

The Citroën Junior Team was formed in 2009 following the withdrawal of manufacturers Subaru and Suzuki. It ran Citroën C4s for Russian Evgeny Novikov, Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach and Junior World Rally Championship champion Sébastien Ogier. It ran former Subaru driver Chris Atkinson rather than Novikov on the season-opening Rally Ireland, although despite a good performance, the Australian did not feature in the team again. Petter Solberg was nominated to score manufacturer points for the team at Rally GB.[3] Solberg finished fourth there, with another driver of Citroën Junior Team Aaron Burkart finishing 12th in his first WRC rally with WRC car.

2010

On 4 December 2009, it was announced that 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Räikkönen would drive for the Citroën Junior Team for his switch to rallying.[4] Räikkönen's co-driver would be Kaj Lindström who had partnered multiple world champion Tommi Mäkinen in the past, while Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia were in a second car for the Junior Team.

Räikkönen and Lindström contested 12 out of the 13 rounds in the 2010 WRC season, missing only the Rally of New Zealand. They did not start at 2010 Rally Catalunya because of a crash at the pre-event shakedown.

Sébastien Ogier claimed Citroën Junior Team's best result, winning at 2010 Rally de Portugal. Because of his strong finishes he was promoted to Citroën World Rally Team for gravel rallies (Finland, Japan, Wales) while Dani Sordo switched to Citroën Junior Team for those rallies. The best result for Kimi Räikkönen was 5th place at 2010 Rally of Turkey.

2011

The 'Junior Team' banner has been dropped for 2011, Citroen Racing Technologies instead focussing the brand's customer efforts on Petter Solberg, Peter van Merksteijn Jr. and Kimi Räikkönen's privateer campaigns.

2012

Thierry Neuville entered the WRC after a successful two-year campaign in IRC with Peugeot 207 S2000 run by Peugeot BelLux. He won famous Rallye San Remo and Tour de Corse in 2011 season. Thierry did not compete in selected rallies and Citroën Junior Team did not compete in the manufacturers championship.

2013

The team did not compete as WRC team in the 2013 season. Instead PH-Sport supported former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica in the European Rally Championship and World Rally Championship-2 campaigns driving Citroën DS3 RRC, which is prepeared by the team.

2014

Stephane Lefebvre won the WRC2 championship in 2014 and was rewarded with a number of selected outings in the WRC team in 2015 and 2016

2016

With Citroën's decision to take a sabbatical as works team in preperations for 2017 PH-Sport took over as the manufacturer's de-facto leading team. Competing under the Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team the team will compete in selected events with Kris Meeke as their leading driver, while at some events the other cars will be shared between Stéphane Lefebvre, Craig Breen and Khalid Al-Qassimi. The team however is not registered as a manufacturer team and therefore the drivers are ineligible to score manufacturer points.

WRC Results

Year Entrant Car No Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 WDC Points TC Points
2008 World Rally Team Estonia Citroën C4 WRC 15 Estonia Urmo Aava MON SWE
18
MEX ARG JOR
Ret
ITA
8
GRE
4
TUR
Ret
FIN
15
GER
8
NZL
5
ESP
Ret
FRA
7
JPN GBR 11th 13 - -
Conrad Rautenbach Citroën Xsara WRC 21 Zimbabwe Conrad Rautenbach MON
Ret
SWE
16
15th 6
Citroën C4 WRC 16 MEX
15
ARG
4
JOR
26
ITA
13
GRE
10
TUR
8
FIN
10
GER
13
NZL
Ret
ESP
Ret
FRA
14
JPN
Ret
GBR
15
Equipe de France FFSA 17 France Sébastien Ogier MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRE TUR FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN GBR
26
19th 1
2009 Citroën Junior Team Citroën C4 WRC 7 Australia Chris Atkinson IRE
5
NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR 14th 4 4th 47
Russia Evgeny Novikov IRE NOR
11
CYP
Ret
POR
Ret
ARG ITA
5
GRC
16
POL
9
FIN
Ret
AUS ESP
Ret
GBR 13th 4
8 Zimbabwe Conrad Rautenbach IRE
18
NOR
Ret
CYP
6
POR
Ret
ARG
Ret
ITA
9
GRE
5
POL
8
FIN
Ret
AUS
Ret
ESP
11
GBR
8
10th 9
11 Norway Petter Solberg IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR
4
5th 35
12 France Sébastien Ogier IRE
6
NOR
10
CYP
Ret
POR
17
ARG
7
ITA
Ret
GRE
2
POL
Ret
FIN
6
AUS
5
ESP
5
GBR
Ret
8th 24
16 Germany Aaron Burkart IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR
12
- 0
2010 Citroën Junior Team Citroën C4 WRC 7 France Sébastien Ogier SWE
5
MEX
3
JOR
6
TUR
4
NZL
2
POR
1
BUL
4
GER
3
FRA
6
ESP
10
4th 167 3rd 217
Spain Dani Sordo FIN
5
JPN
4
GBR
5
5th 150
8 Finland Kimi Räikkönen SWE
29
MEX
Ret
JOR
8
TUR
5
NZL POR
10
BUL
11
FIN
25
GER
7
JPN
Ret
FRA
Ret
ESP
DNS
GBR
8
10th 25
2012 Citroën Junior Team Citroën DS3 WRC 23 Belgium Thierry Neuville MON
Ret
SWE
12
MEX
13
POR
8
ARG
5
GRE
6
NZL FIN
16
GER
12
GBR
7
FRA
4
ITA ESP
12
7th 53 5th 72
2013 Robert Kubica Citroën DS3 RRC 74 Poland Robert Kubica MON SWE MEX POR
19
ARG GRE
11
ITA
9
FIN
9
GER
5
AUS FRA
9
ESP
9
GBR 13th 18 - -

Gallery

See also

References

  1. "80e RALLYE MONTE CARLO 2012" (PDF). rallye-magazin.de. 27 December 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  2. "Citroen Junior Team Team Profile | WRC". Crash.Net. 2008-12-24. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  3. "Solberg joins Citroen's Junior squad for Rally GB". wrc.com. WRC. 21 September 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  4. Kimi Raikkonen signs with Citröen junior rally team AUSmotive.com, 4 December 2009
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