Citroën Junior Team

The Citroën Junior Team was a World Rally Championship team that competed in the 2009, 2010 and 2012 seasons. It was established as a second team for the Citroën brand and was presented as a vehicle to develop young talent.

Citroën Junior Team
Full nameCitroën Junior Team
BaseFrance Versailles, France
Team principal(s)Benoit Nogier
ChassisCitroën DS3 WRC
TyresMichelin
World Rally Championship history
Debut2009 Rally Ireland
Last event2012 Rally Catalunya
Manufacturers' Championships0
Drivers' Championships0
Rally wins3

The team was also the flagship WRC team for Citroën Racing's customer racing department, Citroën Racing Technologies (CRT), which was in existence between 2007 and 2012. As with all of CRT's customer privateers and team, the Citroën Junior Team was run on events by third-party preparation firm PH Sport.[1][2][3]

History

Background

PH Sport and Citroën Sport Technologies[lower-alpha 1] ran semi-privateer Citroën C4 WRCs for Conrad Rautenbach and Urmo Aava during the 2008 World Rally Championship season.[4]

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.[5] 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 Junior Team for his switch to rallying.[6] 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 was dropped for 2011 as Ogier was promoted to the Citroën World Rally Team. A change in WRC regulations allowed customers of Citroën Racing Technologies to each enter in their own teams with just one car. Petter Solberg, Peter van Merksteijn Jr. and Kimi Räikkönen entered this way in 2011, still using cars from CRT and operated on event by PH Sport.

2012

The Junior Team name was revived as Thierry Neuville entered the WRC in a one-car team after a successful two-year campaign in IRC with Peugeot 207 S2000 run by Peugeot BelLux. His best result was fourth at the Rally de France Alsace and he finished the season in seventh position.

2013–

The Citroën Racing Technologies name disappeared after 2012 as Citroën Racing's customer offerings focused on its new DS3 Regional Rally Car, R5, R3T and R1 cars rather than World Rally Cars. No privateer teams contested the WRC manufacturers' championship again in Citroën World Rally Cars, perhaps arguably with the exception of the Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team in 2016, which was the existing Citroën World Rally Team without an official manufacturer entry, entered again through PH Sport.

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 Estonia 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 Zimbabwe 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 France 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 Australia Chris Atkinson IRE
5		 NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR 14th 4 4th 47
Russia 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 Zimbabwe 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 Norway Petter Solberg IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR
4		 5th 35
12 France 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 Germany Aaron Burkart IRE NOR CYP POR ARG ITA GRE POL FIN AUS ESP GBR
12		 – 0
2010 Citroën Junior Team Citroën C4 WRC 7 France 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
Spain Dani Sordo FIN
5		 JPN
4		 GBR
5		 5th 150
8 Finland 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 Belgium 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

See also

Notes
  1. Citroën Racing Technologies from 2009

References
  1. "80e RALLYE MONTE CARLO 2012" (PDF). rallye-magazin.de. 27 December 2011. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  2. "WRC: Citroën introduces the Citroën Junior Team | Car News | Auto123". auto123.com. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  3. "Citroën introduces the Citroën Junior Team" (PDF).
  4. "Citroen Junior Team Team Profile | WRC". Crash.Net. 2008-12-24. Archived from the original on 30 November 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  5. "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.
  6. Kimi Raikkonen signs with Citröen junior rally team AUSmotive.com, 4 December 2009
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