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Citroën Junior Team

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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 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.

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

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Background

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

2009

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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

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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

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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

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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–

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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

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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
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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Citroën Racing Technologies from 2009

References

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  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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