BREEN OUT TO PROVE HIS MERIT
Irishman Craig Breen returns to Citroen Racing for this week’s Rally Argentina with the aim of showing his employer what it missed by replacing him with nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb for the last two WRC rounds.
Breen’s enforced sabbatical has, he says, made him hungrier than ever to break his WRC duck on one of the remaining rounds this year.
Loeb was offered a programme of three rallies through 2018 and MN understands the original plan was for him to run a third car alongside Breen and team leader Kris Meeke, but budget cuts forced the team to demote Breen to the bench. Strong performances from Loeb, where he led in Mexico until a puncture and then crashed out of second place in Corsica before he returned to set three fastest times, demonstrated the sense in Citroen’s decision.
Breen is now keen to put his frustration behind him and focus on the rest of the year.
“It really wasn’t easy sitting on the sidelines for those two rallies,” Breen told MN. “Since I was eightyears-old I was out there competing pretty much week-in, week-out, so to be twiddling my thumbs for eight weeks hasn’t been the easiest of things.”
Breen has revealed how, in an effort to take his mind off the Tour de Corse, he had prepared himself for a return to kart racing.
“I’d gone under the radar to get myself into a local kart race in Italy,” he said, “I’m good friends with Robert Kubica and I bought a 125cc gearbox kart from him – I absolutely love it and I’m out in it most days. But when the race got nearer, I got the flu and I wasn’t going to be fit so I had to pull out.
“On the first day [of Corsica] I went away to the kart track anyway, turned off all of the social media and told myself I wasn’t going to listen or watch anything. That lasted for all of 15 minutes, until I was back off the track and working on the kart – I started listening and heard Seb was off. I was gutted for him and the team.”
Breen was back aboard the C3 for the first time since finishing second on Rally Sweden in February when he tested the car in Portugal last week ( see sidebar).
“That was the most difficult thing,” said Breen. “We’d gone so well in Sweden and everything felt right with the car. We need to get that feeling back.
“There are some rallies this year where I’m looking to tick the box with a win, but as well as that the primary focus for me is to leave every rally knowing that I can come back and fight for the win next year. When we left Sweden, that feeling was there – I was so confident I was in no other state of mind other than to be fighting to win it next time we’re there.
“Compare that to last year when we left rallies like Argentina, Sardinia, Portugal and Finland struggling for confidence and you can see how far the team and the car has come since that time.”
Breen admitted his return to the WRC could be tricky after missing much of the 2017 event when his car sustained a broken gearbox and oil leak.
He said. “I will struggle a bit for knowledge compared with the other guys, but we’ve got a good place on the road – providing it doesn’t rain; if it rains, we’ve got a sh*te place on the road – and we have to try and use that to cling to the coattails of the guys ahead. A podium would be a really nice result to come back on.” l Mads Ostberg will return to Citroen Racing for the next two European rounds of the World Rally Championship in Portugal and Sardinia – the Norwegian was back aboard the C3 WRC for a two-day test in Portugal last week. Khalid Al Qassimi and navigator Chris Patterson will make their first appearance in a C3 WRC this season in Argentina. The pair have only tackled the event once before, but finished a strong sixth overall in 2015.