The Citroën Junior Team was a

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is an international rallying series owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. Inaugurated in 1973, it is the oldest FIA world championship after Formula One. E ...

team that competed in the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

seasons. It was established as a second team for the

Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

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.

History

Background

PH Sport and Citroën Sport Technologies ran semi-privateer

Citroën C4 WRC The Citroën C4 WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Citroën C4 road car and replaced the Citroën Xsara WRC. The car was introduced ...

s for

Conrad Rautenbach Conrad Rautenbach (born 12 November 1984) is a rally driver from Zimbabwe who competed in the World Rally Championship for the Citroën Junior Team along with his co-driver Daniel Barritt. He won the African Rally Championship twice, in 200 ...

and Urmo Aava during the

2008 World Rally Championship season The 2008 World Rally Championship was the 36th season of the FIA World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 15 rallies and began on 24 January, with the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally. Frenchman Sébastien Loeb successfully retained the Drivers ...

2009

The Citroën Junior Team was formed in 2009 following the withdrawal of manufacturers

Subaru is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first largest aut ...

and

Suzuki is a Japanese multinational mobility manufacturer headquartered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka. It manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a va ...

. It ran Citroën C4s for Russian

Evgeny Novikov Evgeny Maksimovich Novikov (; born 19 September 1990) is a Russian former rally driver who competed in the World Rally Championship from 2007 to 2013. Career Born in Moscow, Novikov won the Russian Rally Cup in 2006 and finished runner-up ...

, Zimbabwean

and

Junior World Rally Championship The FIA Junior WRC Championship is an international rallying series restricted to drivers under 29 years old, running within the framework of the World Rally Championship. The series is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobi ...

champion

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Eugène Emile Ogier (; born 17 December 1983) is a French Rallying, rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC). He is currently teamed with co-driver Vincent Landais. He has won 8 List ...

. It ran former Subaru driver

Chris Atkinson Christopher James Atkinson (born 30 November 1979 in Bega, New South Wales, Australia) is a professional rally driver. In the World Rally Championship (WRC), Atkinson drove for the Subaru World Rally Team between 2004 and 2008. His best finis ...

rather than Novikov on the season-opening

Rally Ireland Rally Ireland was added to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar in 2007 World Rally Championship season, 2007. It was not part of the 2008 World Rally Championship season, 2008 schedule, ...

, although despite a good performance, the Australian did not feature in the team again.

Petter Solberg Petter Solberg (born 18 November 1974), nicknamed "Mr. Hollywood" is a Norwegian former professional rallying, rally and rallycross driver. Solberg debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Ford World Rally Team, For ...

was nominated to score manufacturer points for the team at

Rally GB Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) cal ...

. Solberg finished fourth there, with another driver of Citroën Junior Team Aaron Burkart finishing 12th in his first WRC rally with WRC car.

2010

On 4 December 2009, it was announced that

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "the Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One ...

would drive for the Junior Team for his switch to rallying.Kimi Raikkonen signs with Citröen junior rally team
AUSmotive.com, 4 December 2009 Räikkönen's co-driver would be Kaj Lindström who had partnered multiple world champion

Tommi Mäkinen Tommi Antero Mäkinen (; born 26 June 1964) is a Finnish racing executive and former rally driver. Mäkinen is one of the most successful World Rally drivers of all time, ranking fifth in rally wins (24) and third in championships (4), tied wit ...

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 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. Because of his strong finishes he was promoted to

Citroën World Rally Team The Citroën Total World Rally Team was the Citroën factory backed entry into the World Rally Championship (WRC), run by Citroën Racing. History Background In 1998, following its withdrawal from Rally raid competition, Citroën Sport bega ...

for gravel rallies (Finland, Japan, Wales) while

Dani Sordo Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland. Career Sordo began in motocross whe ...

switched to Citroën Junior Team for those rallies. The best result for Kimi Räikkönen was 5th place at

2010 Rally of Turkey 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

2011

The 'Junior Team' banner was dropped for 2011 as Ogier was promoted to the

. A change in WRC regulations allowed customers of Citroën Racing Technologies to each enter in their own teams with just one car.

, Peter van Merksteijn Jr. and

entered this way in 2011, still using cars from CRT and operated on event by PH Sport.

2012

The Junior Team name was revived as

Thierry Neuville Thierry Jean Neuville ( ; born 16 June 1988) is a Belgian rally driver who is competing in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. During his career, he has finished as runner-up five times (2013, 2016–2019) and achieved his maiden ...

entered the WRC in a one-car team after a successful two-year campaign in

IRC IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...

with

Peugeot 207 S2000 The Peugeot 207 S2000 is a Super 2000 rally car developed by Peugeot Sport. It is based upon the Peugeot 207 road car. Drivers Enrique García Ojeda, Nicolas Vouilloz and Kris Meeke won the Intercontinental Rally Challenge The Intercontinental ...

run by Peugeot BelLux. His best result was fourth at the Rally de France Alsace and he finished the season in seventh position.

2013–

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

Gallery

File:Evgeny Novikov - 2009 Cyprus Rally.jpg,

driving a Citroën Junior Team-run

at the 2009 Cyprus Rally File:Sébastien Ogier - 2009 Rally Australia.jpg,

at the 2009 Rally Australia File:Rally Finland 2010 - shakedown - Dani Sordo 1.jpg,

during his first rally for Citroën Junior Team at

2010 Rally Finland The 2010 Neste Oil Rally Finland was the 60th Rally Finland and the eighth round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over July 29–31, and is based in Jyväskylä, the capital of the Central Finland region. The rally ...

. File:Kimi raikkonen IMG 3305.JPG,

at the

2010 Rally Bulgaria The 2010 Rally Bulgaria was the seventh round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over July 9–11, and was based in Borovets, around outside the capital city, Sofia. The rally was also the third round of the Junior W ...

Notes

References

External links

Citroën Racing homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Citroen Junior Team Citroën World Rally Championship teams Intercontinental Rally Challenge teams European Rally Championship teams French auto racing teams