It may seem dusty today, but it wasn't that long ago that Citroën cars were unbeatable on the tracks of World Championship car competitions. Even before Sébastien Loeb could dominate like this, the carmaker had come a long way.
One of the first documented participations is the start of Francois Lecot with a Citroën 11 AL car at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1934. At that time, however, it was a completely private race for pilots. Only DS cars appeared at the start with factory support in 1956, but at that time only one of the seven cars finished in 7th position in Monte Carlo. Another start with the ID19 type (the ID type was derived from the luxury DS) took place three years later, when Paul Coltelloni won in Monte Carlo and became the European champion in the same year. The automaker decided to establish a racing factory team led by René Cotton . Lucien Bianchi , Pauli Toivonen (Henri Toivonen's father) and René Trautman shone behind the wheels of the cars. Cotton introduced a professional approach to the rally for the first time, the team had massive support and the supporting cars carried a lot of spare parts, refreshments and facilities for the drivers, a doctor, a physiotherapist and even floral decorations. But the ID and DS types gradually began to lose their competitiveness due to large dimensions and weight. In addition, the more powerful versions of the DS21 and DS23 appeared too late. The last notable success was Toivonen 's victory at the 1966 Rallye Monte Carlo , where the French organizers excluded the then unattainable Mini Cooper S cars.
In the 1970s, Cotton's wife took over the management of the team and fielded a new Maserati -powered Citroën SM luxury limousine in the races. However, he was losing to the competition due to the same shortcomings as his predecessors. At Citroën, they did build a shorter and lighter SM Proto , but this was difficult to handle as most of the weight rested on the front axle. Although the team included great drivers such as Rauno Aaltonen and Björn Waldegaard , the maximum was the bronze position in the 1971 Portugal Rally . The car celebrated its successes only in African competitions. And as if the French were unteachable, they subsequently entered the races with a Citroën CX , which, however, proved itself only on the black continent. In the 1980s, it was decided that Citroën Visa would enter the competition. Several sports versions were derived from it, such as Chrono or Tropheé , but the highlight was the Visa 1000 Pistes type, a special for the weakest group B , where it competed against the Czech Skoda 130 LR cars. Against them, however, he had the advantage of all-wheel drive . Citroën aimed higher and in 1986 introduced the BX 4TC for competition in the absolute order. The car was inspired by the original Audi Quattro , although it had a lightweight body, but with a long wheelbase and an engine on the front axle, it could not compete with the Peugeot 205 T16 or the Lancia Delta S4 . After three competitions, with a maximum of 6th place for Jean-Claude Andruet , the team withdrew.
In 1989, Guy Fréquelin became the boss of the newly assembled Citroën Sport team. The main task was to take over the baton of sister Peugeot in marathon competitions. This was successful, the team built a special Citroën ZX Rallye Raid , and with it the famous Dakar winner Ari Vatanen (1990) and Frenchman Pierre Lartigue (1994-96) won 3 times. In classic competitions, the small Citroën AX GTi appeared in the lower category. However, the Citroën team, encouraged by the success, built a two-liter competition special ZX 16V and began to compete in the Formula 2 category. A heavily modified ZX Kit Car was also built for the popular Rallycross at the time, but Jesús Puras drove this car in the Spanish Rally Championship and won the title. So Citroën changed its plans and after the successful conquest of the Dakar, which brought about a change in the rules in this competition, the team refocused on classic competitions. A special Saxo Kit Car with a 1.6-liter engine was created, which was very successful on asphalt tracks. The weaker Saxo VTS , on the other hand, was perfectly suited to the lower categories. However, it soon became clear to the team that with the small engine in the Sax there was no chance of winning the F2 world championship title. And so the Xsara Kit Car was born. This car was so successful that the team managed to win the 1999 asphalt competitions in Spain and Corsica in absolute order. The FIA responded by introducing restrictors to make it impossible to beat WRC specials with a weaker car.
The WRC was thus the logical path for the further advancement of the Citroën team. The series Xsara underwent a facelift, and it also appeared on the racing version, which had a new engine, all-wheel drive and a larger wing. It was originally called Xsara T4 and Philippe Bugalski drove it only in the French championship to properly test it. When it won all the events, it was clear that the new WRC special was competitive enough to compete in the World Championship. However, the team initially hesitated to enter, because there were Peugeot 206 WRC cars and there was a threat of a fratricidal fight. Citroëns thus appeared irregularly at the starts, yet both Puras and Bugalski celebrated several victories. In short, the Saxo didn't come either, after the introduction of the JWRC junior category, it was transformed (also with a facelift) into the Saxo S1600 version, and Sébastien Loeb won the first JWRC world championship title with it in 2001 (Yes, so in total he has 10 titles, this junior and 9 normal ), when he won all 5 races (out of a total of 6) in which he started. It was understandable that Loeb would become the factory driver in the first full season of 2003. Puras and Bugalski had already disappeared from the team and former world champions Colin McRae and Carlos Sainz came to Loeb's side. But it was Loeb who soon became the team's leader and eventually a multiple world champion as Petter Solberg 's Subaru trailed by a single point. But in the following nine years, a similar situation never happened again, and the only name of the best pilot the world knew at that time was Sébastien's. Neither a broken arm and missed races, nor a one-year break from the Citroën factory team in 2006, when he started with the Kronos Xsara, could dethrone him from the throne of world champion.
Of course, Citroën continued to compete in the lower category, when the Saxo was replaced by the more modern type C2 S1600 . But Saxo still shone in 2002, when Dani Solá became junior champion with it. But the successor C2 has 3 titles under its belt, with Dani Sordo winning in 2005 and the future Top Category World Champion, Sébastien Ogier , in 2008. Both later became Citroën factory drivers in the top WRC category. Also in 2009, the Citroën driver, specifically the Czech Martin Prokop , became the junior champion. Returning to the top category after a one-year hiatus, Citroën introduced the new C4 WRC . Apart from the car, however, nothing has changed, Loeb became world champion every time even with the new car. And in addition to the first year of deployment of the new C4 , the team also celebrated the Constructors' Cup every time. In 2011, new technical regulations came into force and WRC cars with a 1.6 liter turbo engine appeared. Naturally, Citroën continued the successful series, this time with the DS3 WRC type. And even with him, Loeb won two more titles. However, the eternal winning of the champion got tired, so in 2013 he completed only 4 events, of which he won two. Sordo also scored one victory for the brand, but he left the team at the end of the season. But there are still lower categories that have switched to the new designation R1 to R5 . Citroën also presented the C2 R2 here based on the successful C2 S1600 . But the real boom occurred relatively recently, when the types DS3 R3T , DS3 R1 and most recently DS3 R5 appeared. The R5 class cars are technically similar to the current WRC and are set to take over from the defunct S2000s in the national and continental championships. However, these cars have so far failed to topple the indomitable Fabia S2000 .
In addition to rallying, Citroën has returned to the circuits, competing in the WTCC World Touring Car Championship with the C-Elyseé sedan. And with who else behind the wheel than the phenomenal Sébastien Loeb , who discovered a new challenge on the circuits. Citroën's future in rallying is uncertain, with a factory team heavily backed by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi operating but failing to compete with Volkswagen . The latter is now dominating the world rally in the same way that it was dominated by French cars in the last decade. And in the lower categories, Citroën cars must once again face fierce competition from Peugeot . After all, it is characteristic of the entire operation of the Citroën team, because once upon a time, in the 60s and 70s, the Peugeot 404 and 504 were the most serious rivals of the beautiful "goddesses" on the African continent. Let's hope that this will not discourage the team based in Versailles-Satory , and we will continue to meet Citroëns on the tracks of world competitions.
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