Citroën, from the Nurburgring to the Hungaroring

— Just a few days after their triumphant weekend in Marrakech, the Citroën C-Elysée WTCCs are returning to action in an entirely different setting!
— On Tuesday, the drivers will be hard at work on the Nürburgring Nordschleife track, in a test day to prepare them for the German round of the FIA WTCC on 14-16 May.
— The Citroën Total team will then head to the Hungaroring to contest the third meeting of the season.
— The four official Citroën drivers are currently sitting atop the World Drivers’ Championship, with José María López leading the way, ahead of Sébastien Loeb, Yvan Muller and Ma Qing Hua.

After a long interlude to give them time to transport all their gear across the Atlantic from Argentina to Morocco, the FIA World Touring Car Championship teams are about to embark upon a three-month tour of Europe, with trips to Hungary, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, France and Portugal following in quick succession, offering the competitors little respite until mid-July.

On their way from Versailles to Budapest, the Citroën Racing team will make a quick detour to the Eifel mountains to take part in a day of collective testing at the Nürburgring. Next Tuesday, all the WTCC drivers will be doing their best to get to grips with the ‘Gesamstrecke’, a circuit that includes all but a few chicanes of F1’s legendary Nordschleife. They will negotiate 170 ‘official’ turns on a 25.947 km track… all in a little under 9 minutes.

For Citroën Racing’s engineers, it will be a particularly important day. “More than anything, it’s a meeting that has required a lot of preparation from the drivers,” explains Xavier Mestelan, Citroën Racing’s Technical Director. “A few months ago, they went and did a few laps of the Nordschleife in mass-produced cars. They then carried on the process of memorising the track on our simulator. Now, we’re going to be able to put all that into practice. It’s hard to sum up a circuit like that in just a few words, but we already know that we’ll have to have our cars sitting rather higher than usual because of the bumpy surface. It’s not a rally, but we’ll have to completely review our setup in terms of suspension and aerodynamics. The circuit also poses a major challenge for the engine, with one long straight which requires the cars to maintain top speed for almost 40 seconds.”

Unlike at traditional test sessions, where each day a new driver takes his turn in a car dedicated to development, Sébastien Loeb, José María López, Ma Qing Hua and Yvan Muller will be using the same Citroën C-Elysée WTCCs they race in. The technical team will therefore be able to compare the data acquired to work towards the best possible setup. “The length of the circuit will force us to change our approach,” Xavier Mestelan continues. “On a 26 km track, we obviously won’t be able to work bend-by-bend as we normally do. We’ll have to divide the circuit into sections and find the best compromises we can. The cars will have to be easy to drive, but also precise in their handling due to the various hidden turns.”

NEXT STOP: BUDAPEST

As soon as the routine technical checks have been completed, the Citroëns will be loaded onto the team’s trucks and make their way 1,200 km east to the Hungaroring. The third round of the FIA WTCC 2015 sees the competition return to its most sinuous venue. “We noticed last year that our car was less at ease on the winding circuits. So that was something the team worked on when it came to making changes to the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC for 2015,” notes Citroën Racing Team Principal Yves Matton. “Those efforts will come in handy as the compensation weights kick in. From this meeting onwards, we will have to carry an extra 60 kg, while our rivals will have zero ballast. That’s a new development this year.”

Of Citroën Racing’s drivers, Yvan Muller can be considered as THE Hungaroring specialist. Since the Budapest circuit first appeared on the WTCC calendar in 2011, the man from Alsace has won every year! Spurred on by his victory in Marrakech, he will be looking to carry on in the same vein in order to close the gap on José María López and Sébastien Loeb in the overall standings: “I like this circuit. There’s a lot of rhythm in it. It is true that the stats suggest I should be the favourite, but I think we’re going to suffer from the ballast, particularly at the Hungaroring. We’re going to have to pull out all the stops in qualifying to have a chance of winning. But before that, I’m looking forward to seeing what the Nürburgring is like in the C-Elysée. Strangely enough, I’ve never raced there. The drivers who know it well say that you need at least 80 laps to get to grips with it properly. Needless to say, we’re a long way from that, but it will be a good challenge for our drivers and engineers.”

PECHITO ON PARADE

On Friday, before the meeting officially gets underway, there will be a grand parade through the streets of Budapest. As is customary on 1st May each year, the city centre will be transformed into a showcase for all kinds of racing cars. José María López will represent Citroën’s FIA WTCC clan. It will be a chance for Pechito, who leads the World Championship after securing pole positions and race wins at both Termas de Río Hondo and Marrakech, to gauge his popularity with a knowledgeable crowd of motor sport aficionados.

At 6.30 p.m. on Friday, the cars will take to the track for a few shakedown laps behind the safety car. On Saturday morning, two sessions of free practice will be held, the first at 9 a.m. and the second at 11.30. Qualifying begins at 2.30 p.m. The two races will take place at 1.30 and 2.30 p.m. on the Sunday.