O “That was a career-ending press release”

n October 8 last year, Kris Meeke tweeted: “It’s not about how many times you get knocked down, it’s more about how many times you get back up.” That day Meeke won Rally Spain. He’d got back up. Being dropped three rallies earlier was forgotten. And now, more than ever, Kris needs to heed those words of American Civil War hero George Custer.

Especially after the words from that communication. They were a bit special, weren’t they…

“That was a career-ending press release,” was the verdict of one of motorsport’s most senior figures. “I just don’t understand how they could write these things about Kris…”

Seeing the wrecked C3 WRC when it was delivered back in Porto would have made that process slightly easier. But still, that release was as shocking in its content as it was surprising in its delivery.

I struggle to see the justification for the words and would like to offer Citroen the benefit of the doubt that it perhaps reflected the corporate-level of the decision. But I’m still staggered at what appears to be a lack of consideration for the possible knock-on effect of this release should, heaven-forbid, there be another accident with more serious consequences. But do I struggle for the justification in dropping Kris? I’ll be honest, I’ve given a disproportionate amount of my time to this subject and, certainly, I can’t subscribe entirely to this outpouring of anger towards Versailles.

Working on these pages, I ventured back through my notebooks. Back through interviews with then Citroen team principal Yves Matton, interviews in Finland, Australia, Britain, in fact, from pretty much all four corners of the earth, where I’d sat down to that silent, stony stare from Matton after Kris had dropped it.

Citroen gave Kris almost five years and 53 world rallies. And he returned five wins and 12 podiums. But, in the end, he gave Citroen nowhere to go.

Nobody could ever doubt Meeke’s speed, it’s out of this world. And he’s brave to match. But history has shown him to be inconsistent and unreliable. I know only too well about the struggle he faced to bring Citroen around to his way of thinking while he was developing the 2017 C3 WRC – at times he looked like he was making that car into a winner in spite of the team rather than with them.

But when it came to driving the car, he found it almost impossible to accept second best and all-too-often tried to overcome engineering deficiencies with a couple more miles per hour at the apex. And almost as often, the laws of physics hung Meeke out to dry.

There were, quite simply, too many mistakes. And Citroen, more pertinently, couldn’t afford any more bent metal. Or worse.

Meeke remains an extraordinary talent and Sardinia will be considerably the poorer without him and Paul Nagle. But Citroen has bills to pay and a management structure to answer to. Seeing pictures of a horribly twisted and broken C3 WRC spread throughout the media is never going to sit well with the board.

Pierre Budar’s reasoning for why the crash that broke the bond should never have happened is as compelling as it is impossible to ignore.

Now Kris, the time has come for you to again rise to Custer’s challenge.