WHAT NEXT FOR MEEKE?
Team boss es looking ahead to a future without me eke
Citroen is ready to sit down and discuss a deal to bring Sebastien Ogier back to Paris to replace Kris Meeke in the C3 WRC next season.
Craig Breen and Mads Ostberg will represent the French firm at the next round in Sardinia, the Italian island event was always planned for Ostberg. Beyond round seven, Citroen has three weeks to decide who will drive its lead car at Rally Finland and potentially for the rest of the season. That won’t be Ogier, who is committed to his contract with the M-sport Ford World Rally Team.
But Citroen team principal Pierre Budar said he would be interested to sit down and talk to the five-time champion about bringing him back for the first time since the Citroen-ogier relationship fell apart at the end of 2011.
Budar told MN: “You can imagine in our situation we are going to consider all of the opportunities to have a new driver.
“If you tell me Ogier is on the market and Ogier can be interested by Citroen then, of course, I would be interested in Sebastien Ogier. That’s for sure. But we have to consider all the opportunities. We have to define our driver line-up for next year.”
Meeke’s departure could force Citroen into a significant U-turn where Ogier is concerned – PSA Group CEO Carlos Tavares told MN at the start of the season that the firm wasn’t thinking about bringing him back.
Asked in January why Citroen hadn’t chased Ogier harder, Tavares said: “We believe we have a great driver called Kris Meeke. We love Mr Ogier, he’s a great champion who we respect a lot, but at the end of the day we make our decisions based on our strategy and we take the risk of being unpopular, but this is our strategy.”
Post-portugal, that strategy is clearly being revised.
Ogier wasn’t the only French Sebastien being talked about for a possible fulltime return to Citroen. Sebastien Loeb said Meeke’s position didn’t change his feelings about his current programme. Loeb is scheduled to tackle Rally Spain in October as part three of his threerally return for Citroen.
“I am working in the World Rallycross championship now,” he said. “I don’t want to do this and WRC, I don’t have the motivation for that. For me, nothing changes because Meeke isn’t driving for Citroen. I don’t want to put more rallies into the calendar, I want to be more calm and already I am competing here [in WRX] every two weeks and then we have the test and the promotion. Like I say, nothing changes for me. I do Spain, like we plan, but that’s it.”
One of Budar’s immediate concerns is the ongoing development and pre-event testing of the C3, both of which had been led by Meeke.
“Maybe I can help with a test or something,” said Loeb, “maybe this is possible, but so far this isn’t something we have spoken about.”
Loeb confirmed his deal with Peugeot for WRX next season is not yet in place, but he added: “We are talking about it and this is the priority.”
Allowing Breen and Ostberg to see the season out as the team’s two main drivers is a possibility – Budar said Sardinia would offer the chance to assess that as a way forward.
“Let’s see what happens [in Sardinia]. We have to be careful for this, it’s not an easy position for them [Breen and Ostberg]. If we want them to lead the team it can be quite difficult for them.
“We didn’t decide what to do for the next rallies [after Sardinia]. We have a bit of time for the decision. We will have to make a decision for Finland before the end of June. We have time to think about the best scenario for us. We have a few options, not many, but a few. Let’s see what is the best choice for us considering the situation and considering that we have to prepare for next year.”
Budar’s talk of Citroen’s 2019 WRC effort comes as a relief to those who feared Meeke’s departure could hasten the exit of the team. Budar was insistent that was not the case, adding: “This decision is not linked to any new decision for next year. What I can tell you about next year is that Citroen will be involved in WRC. It’s not linked.”
Ostberg said his approach to Sardinia wouldn’t change in light of the loss of Meeke. The Norwegian will get two days instead of a one-day test in Spain in preparation for Alghero, but beyond that he knows nothing of his future with the French marque.
“You know this was always an event I was going to do,” Ostberg told MN. “I understand there’s an opportunity now and I will do my best for this.
“I really want to show the Citroen team what I am capable of and what I can do in Sardinia.”