Citroen to decide on WTCC or WRC by the end of this year
Citroen expects to decide whether it will continue in the World Touring Car Championship or the World Rally Championship from 2017 onwards by the end of this year.
Photo by: Citroën Communication
The French marque says logistics, the level of competition and the Chinese market will be key factors in the decision.
On target to take its second consecutive drivers' and manufacturers' title in its second year in the WTCC, the French brand will drop one of its programmes from 2017 as part of a major restructure of Citroen Racing and Peugeot Sport.
"In approximately one year, all the sporting activities will be on the same premises, and the idea is to have them all In the same place and as efficient as possible, but each brand will keep its own motorsport programme," said Citroen team principal Yves Matton.
"The front office will be the same, it's more the back office that will be put together.
"As [Citroen brand director] Linda Jackson said at Goodwood, it's true that each brand will only have only one official programme, and for Citroen in 2017 it will be either touring cars or the World Rally Championship."
Citroen has struggled in the WRC since Sebastien Loeb retired from full-time competition at the end of 2012, but it has a long history in the WRC and the competition in the championship has increased in recent years with new programmes from Volkswagen, Hyundai and Toyota from 2017.
"[The key factors for us are] the number of events, that there is a Chinese event in the calendar and things like that," added Matton.
"I hope we have answers to all the questions we have at the moment and to all the criteria we've put on the table, so we can make a choice before the end of this year.
"We know that there a lot of things are going on in touring cars to bring some new ideas into the championship. OK, we need to be sure that the business plan will stay as close as possible to the plan we made when we entered.
"If the future of the touring cars is not only sea freight like it was when we entered the discipline, it changes a lot of things for us for example, but with each discipline there are a lot of points which we will take into consideration."
Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes
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