Three-step evolution for Citroen’s 2015 DS3

Citroen’s Kris Meeke and his yet-to-be-named team-mate will drive three evolutions of the DS3 World Rally Car in 2015 in a fresh bid to challenge Volkswagen’s dominant Polo R.

Citroen Racing boss Yves Matton has revealed a busy year of development ahead for the DS3, as well as a more ambitious season objective of winning WRC rallies.

“A lot of new things will be homologated next year and we will do this in three stages,” Matton told WRC Live.

“The first step will come at Rallye Monte Carlo with a new engine, using the same philosophy as the one we are running in World Touring Cars. We will also have new suspension and introduce the new paddle-shift [gear selector] that we are allowed to use next year.”

“After that, around the time of Portugal - although we’re not sure exactly at which rally - we will have an evolution of the aerodynamic package. Finally, we expect another big step with the suspension in the second half of the year.”

Matton believes the combination of mechanical improvements, and drivers with more experience of the car, will enable the team to improve on its best result in 2014 of second at Rally Italia Sardegna.

“What we hope next year is to win some events,” he said. “We expect the car to improve a lot. We hope also that our drivers will have more experience than was the case at the beginning of this year.

“We were waiting this year for a door to open to give us the possibility of a win. Okay, we had a door in Germany, but unfortunately we did not take it! I hope next year this type of situation will happen more often.”