Citroën Junior Team

The Citroën Junior Team is a World Rally Championship team, which competed in the 2009–2010 and 2012 seasons. It was set up and run as Citroën's secondary team in the World Rally Championship, pitched against the existing Stobart Ford World Rally Team.

Citroën Junior Team
Full nameCitroën Junior Team
Base Versailles, France
Team principal(s)Benoit Nogier
ChassisCitroën DS3 WRC
TyresMichelin
World Rally Championship career
Debut2009
Constructors' Championships0
Drivers' Championships0
Rally wins3

The team was run by French preparation firm PH Sport along with Citroën Racing Technologies. It was revived in 2012.[1]

History

Background

PH Sport and Citroën Sport Technologies ran semi-privateer Citroën C4 WRCs for Conrad Rautenbach and Urmo Aava during the 2008 World Rally Championship season.[2]

2009
Conrad Rautenbach driving Citroën C4 WRC at the 2009 Rally Finland.
Kimi Räikkönen at the 2010 Rally Finland.

The Citroën Junior Team was formed in 2009 following the withdrawal of manufacturers Subaru and Suzuki. It ran Citroën C4s for Russian Evgeny Novikov, Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach and Junior World Rally Championship champion Sébastien Ogier. It ran former Subaru driver Chris Atkinson rather than Novikov on the season-opening Rally Ireland, although despite a good performance, the Australian did not feature in the team again. Petter Solberg was nominated to score manufacturer points for the team at Rally GB.[3] Solberg finished fourth there, with another driver of Citroën Junior Team Aaron Burkart finishing 12th in his first WRC rally with WRC car.

2010

On 4 December 2009, it was announced that 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Räikkönen would drive for the Citroën Junior Team for his switch to rallying.[4] Räikkönen's co-driver would be Kaj Lindström who had partnered multiple world champion Tommi Mäkinen in the past, while Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia were in a second car for the Junior Team.

Räikkönen and Lindström contested 12 out of the 13 rounds in the 2010 WRC season, missing only the Rally of New Zealand. They did not start at 2010 Rally Catalunya because of a crash at the pre-event shakedown.

Sébastien Ogier claimed Citroën Junior Team's best result, winning at 2010 Rally de Portugal. Because of his strong finishes he was promoted to Citroën World Rally Team for gravel rallies (Finland, Japan, Wales) while Dani Sordo switched to Citroën Junior Team for those rallies. The best result for Kimi Räikkönen was 5th place at 2010 Rally of Turkey.

2011

The 'Junior Team' banner has been dropped for 2011, Citroen Racing Technologies instead focussing the brand's customer efforts on Petter Solberg, Peter van Merksteijn Jr. and Kimi Räikkönen's privateer campaigns.

2012

Thierry Neuville entered the WRC after a successful two-year campaign in IRC with Peugeot 207 S2000 run by Peugeot BelLux. He won famous Rallye San Remo and Tour de Corse in 2011 season. Thierry did not compete in selected rallies and Citroën Junior Team did not compete in the manufacturers championship.

2013

The team did not compete as WRC team in the 2013 season. Instead PH-Sport supported former Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica in the European Rally Championship and World Rally Championship-2 campaigns driving Citroën DS3 RRC, which is prepared by the team.

2014

Stephane Lefebvre won the WRC2 championship in 2014 and was rewarded with a number of selected outings in the WRC team in 2015 and 2016

2016

With Citroën's decision to take a sabbatical as works team in preparations for 2017 PH-Sport took over as the manufacturer's de facto leading team. Competing under the Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team the team competed in selected events with Kris Meeke as their leading driver, while at some events the other cars were shared between Stéphane Lefebvre, Craig Breen and Khalid Al-Qassimi. The team however was not registered as a manufacturer team and therefore was not eligible to score manufacturer points.

WRC Results
Year Entrant Car No Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 WDC Points TC Points
2008 World Rally Team Estonia Citroën C4 WRC 15 Urmo Aava MON SWE
18		 MEX ARG JOR
Ret		 ITA
8		 GRE
4		 TUR
Ret		 FIN
15		 GER
8		 NZL
5		 ESP
Ret		 FRA
7		 JPN GBR 11th 13 – –
Conrad Rautenbach Citroën Xsara WRC 21 Conrad Rautenbach MON
Ret		 SWE
16		 15th 6
Citroën C4 WRC 16 MEX
15		 ARG
4		 JOR
26		 ITA
13		 GRE
10		 TUR
8		 FIN
10		 GER
13		 NZL
Ret		 ESP
Ret		 FRA
14		 JPN
Ret		 GBR
15
Equipe de France FFSA 17 Sébastien Ogier MON SWE MEX ARG JOR ITA GRE TUR FIN GER NZL ESP FRA JPN GBR
26		 19th 1
2009 Citroën Junior Team Citroën C4 WRC 7 Chris Atkinson IRE
5		 NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR 14th 4 4th 47
Evgeny Novikov IRE NOR
11		 CYP
Ret		 POR
Ret		 ARG ITA
5		 GRC
16		 POL
9		 FIN
Ret		 AUS ESP
Ret		 GBR 13th 4
8 Conrad Rautenbach IRE
18		 NOR
Ret		 CYP
6		 POR
Ret		 ARG
Ret		 ITA
9		 GRE
5		 POL
8		 FIN
Ret		 AUS
Ret		 ESP
11		 GBR
8		 10th 9
11 Petter Solberg IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR
4		 5th 35
12 Sébastien Ogier IRE
6		 NOR
10		 CYP
Ret		 POR
17		 ARG
7		 ITA
Ret		 GRE
2		 POL
Ret		 FIN
6		 AUS
5		 ESP
5		 GBR
Ret		 8th 24
16 Aaron Burkart IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR
12		 – 0
2010 Citroën Junior Team Citroën C4 WRC 7 Sébastien Ogier SWE
5		 MEX
3		 JOR
6		 TUR
4		 NZL
2		 POR
1		 BUL
4		 GER
3		 FRA
6		 ESP
10		 4th 167 3rd 217
Dani Sordo FIN
5		 JPN
4		 GBR
5		 5th 150
8 Kimi Räikkönen SWE
29		 MEX
Ret		 JOR
8		 TUR
5		 NZL POR
10		 BUL
11		 FIN
25		 GER
7		 JPN
Ret		 FRA
Ret		 ESP
DNS		 GBR
8		 10th 25
2012 Citroën Junior Team Citroën DS3 WRC 23 Thierry Neuville MON
Ret		 SWE
12		 MEX
13		 POR
8		 ARG
5		 GRE
6		 NZL FIN
16		 GER
12		 GBR
7		 FRA
4		 ITA ESP
12		 7th 53 5th 72
2013 Robert Kubica Citroën DS3 RRC 74 Robert Kubica MON SWE MEX POR
19		 ARG GRE
11		 ITA
9		 FIN
9		 GER
5		 AUS FRA
9		 ESP
9		 GBR 13th 18 – –
2016 Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team Citroën DS3 WRC 7 Kris Meeke MON
Ret		 SWE
23		 MEX ARG POR
1		 ITA FIN
1		 GER CHN
C		 FRA
16		 ESP
Ret		 GBR
5		 AUS 9th 64 - -
Stéphane Lefebvre POL
9		 13th 14
8 MON
5		 SWE MEX ARG POR
35		 ITA AUS
Craig Breen POL
7		 FIN
3		 GER CHN
C		 FRA
10		 ESP
Ret		 GBR
Ret		 10th 36
14 Khalid Al-Qassimi MON SWE
19		 MEX ARG POR
26		 ITA POL FIN
16		 GER CHN
C		 FRA ESP
12		 AUS NC 0
Stéphane Lefebvre GBR
9		 13th 14
15 Craig Breen MON SWE
8		 MEX ARG POR ITA GBR AUS 10th 36
16 Quentin Gilbert MON SWE MEX ARG POR ITA POL FIN GER CHN
C		 FRA ESP GBR
17		 AUS NC 0
Stéphane Lefebvre 10 Stéphane Lefebvre FIN GER
Ret		 CHN
C		 FRA ESP 13th 14 – –
Marcos Ligato 15 Marcos Ligato POL FIN
44		 GER CHN
C		 FRA ESP 20th 6 NC 0
81 MON SWE MEX ARG POR
4		 ITA GBR AUS
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See also

References
  1. "80e RALLYE MONTE CARLO 2012" (PDF). rallye-magazin.de. 27 December 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  2. "Citroen Junior Team Team Profile | WRC". Crash.Net. 2008-12-24. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  3. "Solberg joins Citroen's Junior squad for Rally GB". wrc.com. WRC. 21 September 2009. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  4. Kimi Raikkonen signs with Citröen junior rally team AUSmotive.com, 4 December 2009
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