Yves Matton looks back on Sébastien Loeb's impressions with the C3

Often placed as one of the most anticipated cars in this year of the revival of WRC, with the appearance of the new technical regulations, the Citroën C3 remains before the Rally of Germany with only one victory to his credit.

Kris Meeke had managed to take the car to the rafters in Mexico after a suspenseful finale, and the Briton was able to play the leading roles in Corsica before experiencing engine problems. Since then, neither the Briton, replaced in Poland by Andreas Mikkelsen, nor Craig Breen, nor Stéphane Lefebvre were able to play the leading roles.

Performance on asphalt which remains a valuable benchmark for Citroën, which was however able to benefit at the start of the week from the contribution of Sébastien Loeb, during a day of driving in the East of France. The epilogue of an in-depth preparation for the German event led by Yves Matton's men.

“We set up one of the most intense testing sessions in the history of Citroën Racing, admits the boss of the French structure. During the first six days, the invited drivers were able to drive on the three types of surfaces encountered during the race.

They were all satisfied with the work accomplished. Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena then completed another day of work. The heavy rain that fell in the morning was not ideal, but it allowed us to gather valuable information in specific conditions.

In the dry, Seb's impressions matched those of Kris, Craig and Andreas and we compared the different technical feedback. Everything seems to be constant after the Tour de Corse, where we showed how competitive the C3 WRC is on the tarmac. »

The meteorological unknown

Sur une épreuve qui a souvent souri à Citroën, avec dix succès entre 2002 et 2012 durant l’ère WRC, les hommes d’Yves Matton espèrent bien briller et revenir au sommet de la hiérarchie, trusté par Hyundai, Ford – M-Sport et Toyota depuis le Mexique.

“As has often been the case this season, the race is going to be very close, explains Yves Matton. We want to be among the leaders, but it is difficult to make predictions, especially since the weather is likely to significantly influence the way the race unfolds. »