2019 mid-season review: Citroën has nothing to be ashamed of

In September 2018, when announcing its signing for two years with Citroën Racing, Sébastien Ogier had been clear: “ It won't be easy. It's not a foregone conclusion “, he warned. Echoing this, Pierre Budar, director of the French team, also preferred to temper expectations. While recognizing that having a couple of six-time world champions in his ranks offered a greater chance of victory, the man who was entering his second year in the boss's chair predicted that the competition would be tough.

Both were right and the last rounds played before the summer break, which will end with Finland (1^er-August 4), confirmed that the French would still have to fight fiercely during the six remaining meetings to retain their crown. However, everything had started admirably well.

By leaving the passenger compartment of their C3 WRC parked in the port of Monaco, Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia radiated happiness. The infectious joy between the two men and the members of the team made it possible to measure the magnitude of the moment. What could be better, in fact, thana first place in the most prestigious round of the calendar to inaugurate this new collaboration, marked moreover by a 100th WRC victory for the French firm? Having not left Citroën on very good terms at the end of 2011, Ogier made a thunderous return.

If only the victory will remain in the annals, the manner in which it was won indicated the scale of the challenge. With only a 0”4 margin at the start of the Power Stage, Ogier had (already!) had to pull away in the last 13,58 kilometers to finally get ahead of Thierry Neuville of 2''2.

A few weeks later, in the Mexican sierras, the world champion was able to overcome the errors and benefit from some racing events (opening of the road for Thank you, puncture of leader Kris Meeke) for achieve a second success in 2019. Between these two consecrations, the Citroën Racing team had the satisfaction of seeing Esapekka Lappi get on the podium in Sweden. This fine second place then made us believe that the Finnish rookie had already found his feet and was a source of promise for the future.

Criticized, the C3 was not so bad and Meeke's recent performances, Craig Breen or Mads Ostberg only seemed duller. After such a start to the championship, everything was in place for the Reds to once again become a regular candidate for victory.

The words of Sébastien Ogier, dripping with Corona and the winner's cowboy boots on his feet in León, could be attributed to the ambition of the Alpin who always pushes to do better: “ We still have work before everything is at the top… but as long as we win and see areas for improvement, that’s good! » Couldn't this also appear as a warning of what was to come? Had these first battles really made it possible to assess the level of performance of the red armada compared to the competition?

The Ogier effect
Favorite at the launch of the Tour de Corse, the Citroën team nevertheless missed it in a remarkable way. For three days between Porto-Vecchio and Calvi, the manufacturer so often dominating on the asphalt was only a shadow of himself. The next three rounds on gravel (Argentina, Chile, Portugal) were also trying. The world champions were never able to aim for victory, either because of a too disadvantageous starting position, or because their mount was not efficient enough.

During this less favorable sequence, which perhaps gave a more representative overview of the level of competitiveness of the C3, especially on gravel, Corsica looking more like an accident, the double chevron was always able to count on the stubbornness of 'Ogier.

He worked hard on each event to get the best possible score and this determination is impressive. If, during recent campaigns, Citroën was aiming for a few trophies rather than a consecration at the end of the year, the signing of the man who has dominated the discipline for 6 years and the commitment he shows have opened up other perspectives and a change of state of mind. There is clearly a Ogier effect » and the variable that he composes with Julien Ingrassia has mattered enormously in recent months.

The two victories already won, the podiums (6 in 7 rallies for the Frenchman) and the repositioning of the team among the important players in the championship allowed the Reds to find smiles and desire again. The inevitability of mediocre results from past seasons has gradually receded to give way to ambition. This emulation goes beyond the members engaged in the field. “ We feel that everyone is pushing in the same direction, Explain Pierre Budar. It is obvious that it is always easier to work when there is a major issue to defend.

The entire team is aware of this and wants it to work. The pressure is there. We know that we are expected, but it is absolutely not negative. » Furthermore, the will shown by the Haut-Alpin was also reflected in the dialogue with the technicians to try to make modifications to the C3. The development process is underway and the first effects should occur when hostilities resume.

This is imperative, because despite the commitment of the team and its flagship crew, Citroën still seemed to struggle to compete with Toyota et Hyundai. " We can clearly see that there was a time when Sébastien probably had more of a margin compared to his opponents., confirms the seasoned boss. There, he has very, very few. »

Work needed
As important as it is, the presence of the world champion alone cannot solve everything. « We knew, confides Budar, that having him with us would give us the chance of recording better results than we had previously achieved, but that is not enough. » This is all the more obvious when he does not have the most effective mount on the board.

In line with the Xsara, C4 and DS3, the C3 is one of the fastest on the tarmac. Even if a misstep is neither unprecedented nor forbidden as confirmed by the last Tour de Corse, the Reds have always been able to offer formidable machines for the tarmac.

First^e place of Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm in Sweden tends to demonstrate that the car behaves well in the snow, but the good starting position of the Finns also contributed to this. On gravel, performances were mixed. While in Mexico the quality of its engine allowed it to compensate for the handicap of altitude where power is reduced by the scarcity of oxygen, the Citroën appeared less sovereign in Argentina. On very slippery terrain, the French WRC showed its delay.

“It is clear that even when we had a good overall balance, we did not have the speed to be among the very best, details Olivier Maroselli, the technical director. We suffered a lot during the Sunday stages which were all uphill and quite bumpy. We must also experience a lack of consistency in behavior. »

Making progress in Chile, the C3 again appeared behind in Portugal, where the harmful effects of sweeping and the sandy soil further aggravated the situation. Could the design of the car be the cause of this lack of performance as some drivers have suggested in the recent past?

Oliver Maroselli does not agree with this. “ It's a sum of things, he agrees. Some concern the substance on which we anticipate developments. We discussed it with Sébastien and we agree that the car needs to evolve in terms of the chassis. There is then some fine-tuning to be done, notably a new shock absorber that we have been using since Mexico and on which we still have to work. »

Being more firm on this theme, Budar declares: “ Certainly, we have not strung together victories like pearls. However, in a context of enormous competitiveness, Sébastien won during his first rally with the car. In Sweden, Esapekka ranked 2^e rank and during the 3^e race, in Mexico, we won again. With these results, moreover on three different surfaces, II don't mind calling the car into question, but there are still fundamentals that are not completely to be thrown away."

The boss then joins Maroselli on the need to work. “ We also clearly said that we are aware that there are configurations on which we need to progress. Work is underway. We know what we have to do, but that doesn't fundamentally call into question the whole car. It will be improvements, but I think every team in their field has things to do. »

If everything did not work perfectly during this first part of the calendar, and if Sardinia with which the second half began proved very complicated, Sébastien Ogier was never out of the title race. The Frenchman will show up in Jyväskylä with only 4 small units behind Ott Tänak.

« At the end of these first seven rounds, our results have largely positive sides when we see that Seb is leading the championship, affirmed Budar before the start of the Sardinia rally (8/14).

He certainly has little lead, but he is the leader. To be in this position, we have accomplished things. I think we are in this configuration thanks to our consistency, even if we must not hide behind the six podiums recorded. I wasn't expecting an easy exercise. I'm quite happy to have managed to negotiate this first part of the program. We discovered ourselves with Sébastien. For his part, he had to learn the car on different terrains and we had to adapt to his requests in terms of settings. »

Between the sweep achieved and his difficulty in competing with Tänak or Neuville, the bill sometimes appeared indigestible for Ogier. This explains the frustration felt and manifested by this inveterate competitor. Despite everything, the situation is far from desperate. He who has already been champion with only two victories during a season (2017), remains perfectly on the list in his own succession.

To his better knowledge of the C3 should be added developments which he helped to define and which he is impatient to use. Perhaps it will be able to compete with Tänak's Yaris which seems to have a head start. When discussing the sequence of events, the same caution as a few months ago reappears in the two men.

« Six races await us and a lot of points to distribute. Everything remains possible, explains the pilot. We work to try to improve. We don't drive an R5 either! It's not a bad car, but it's competition. At a high level, you must always seek to progress. Developments will appear. I don't know if they will allow us to fight on equal terms with Ott and his Toyota which is going very fast. »

« So far concludes Budar, we experienced difficult rallies and we don't expect the coming months to be any easier. It is true that we are progressing… but so are the others! I think the championship will remain tense until the end! "We're not going to complain about that.