Stéphane Lefebvre: “You have to know how to step back to bounce back better”

Aligned over seven rounds of WRC with the Citroën C3 in 2017, Stéphane Lefebvre will remain within the fold of the French brand in 2018, but will go down a notch in the world hierarchy by competing in the WRC-2 with the new C3 R5.

The Frenchman thus “gives up” his place in the seat of the C3 WRC to Sébastien Loeb, back on three rallies (Mexico, Corsica and Catalonia) in the second car entered for the year by Citroën Racing, and which the Alsatian will share with Craig Breen. Kris Meeke, for his part, retains his starting place all year round.

Despite this change of program for 2018, Stéphane Lefebvre wants to see the positive in this new adventure. “It’s a new challenge: sometimes you have to know how to step back to bounce back better, admits the former Junior WRC champion and ERC 2014.

Then it is a great opportunity given to me to demonstrate the competitiveness of the Citroën C3 R5, still in the official colors, in a championship as tough as the WRC-2.

The goal is to win the title, to make it the new benchmark in the category. Having already driven it in tests, I know that it is well born. With the need to finalize my development, I will arrive at the races with a lot of kilometers on the clock, and that is what is important at this stage of my career. »

Stéphane Lefebvre will return to the WRC-2 category, where he entered in 2015, notably winning in Rally Montecarlo.