Citroën Racing: starting from a blank sheet!

The 2011 season sees the opening of a new chapter in the history of the FIA World Rally Championship. The Citroën Total World Rally Team has entered two new DS3 WRCs to defend their World Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles. After several months of intensive development of their new cars Sébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena and Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia are ready to take on their rivals on the ice in Rally Sweden.

After the Xsara WRCs and the C4 WRCs, both crowned with triple titles, Citroën Racing is launching the DS3 WRC on the roads of the FIA World Rally Championship. The Citroën DS3 WRC that complies with the new regulations drawn up by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile is a real package of Creative Technology.

The DS3 WRC is shorter and more compact than the previous cars, and is powered by a new 1600 cm3 direct injection turbo engine designed in-house by Citroën Racing. This new generation of World Rally Cars puts the emphasis on driving skills after the suppression of the central differential, and the return of a mechanical gear selection mechanism.

Back for their eleventh season as a Citroën works crew, Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena are starting the year with all the hunger of young chargers out to score their first victory! The Franco-Monegasque pair, 7-time world champions on the trot, are bubbling with enthusiasm on the eve of this new challenge. Alongside them are Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia, who won their place in the Citroën Total World Rally Team during a more than promising 2010 season.

Rally Sweden, the first of the thirteen rounds on the 2011 calendar, is a unique event. It is the only one run on snow, and for a long time it was an exclusively Scandinavian hunting ground. Since the year of its first running, 1950, only one driver has beaten the Vikings on their home turf, Sébastien Loeb, who won it the same year as he racked up his first world title!

The route of the 2011 rally goes through the regions of Värmland and Dalarna, and the service park is in Hagfors. The event even makes a brief foray into Norwegian territory (Lovhaugen, SS4/7).

With just a few days to go to the first round, Olivier Quesnel, the Citroën Racing Team Principal, is champing at the bit: “We can’t wait to see the first times to find out if the team has done a good job. However, Rally Sweden isn’t really representative of the difficulties we’ll have to face during the season. Our crews know what they have to do and they have my full confidence to come out on top in this new campaign.”

Rally Sweden will also be the theatre of the first Power Stage of the season. The 4.16-km Gustavsfors (SS22) special will be televised live, and 3, 2 and 1 points will be awarded to the first three for the Drivers’ and Co-Drivers’ Championships.

Two more Citroën DS3 WRCs are entered for Petter Solberg / Chris Patterson and Kimi Räikkönen / Kaj Lindström. Each crew has covered 250 km on two stretches representative of the Swedish route. Solberg has been able to adapt the car to his driving style, and he is both delighted and enthused by the performance of the new engine. Räikkönen was happy with the DS3 balance and handling on his first test;