Citroën come in all guns blazing with Muller signing for 2014

Citroën have made their intentions clear after signing Yvan Muller for the 2014 season, which could be both a safe and risky decision as the French manufacturer competes in the World Touring Car Championship for the first time.

The driver call has come much sooner than expected. Citroën made it clear at a press conference in Portugal that all three of Chevrolets final trio of Muller, Alain Menu and Rob Huff were on their shortlist for next year. Last year’s championship runner-up Menu had already tested the development car back in April, and then Yvan Muller tested the car at the end of July and within two weeks he was confirmed as the team’s new driver alongside nine-time World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb.

After what has been a very below expectations season in the World Rally Championship this year, their first without Loeb competing full time, making sure they have the best line-up possible has been Citroën Racing’s approach to 2014. They’ll come in with No.1 on the car as well (just a hunch), so the presentation will look perfect when they turn a wheel for the first time in anger come April next year.

Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb are an interesting pairing. Both are French, in fact both are from the same region, the Alsace. Although if they’d have signed either of the other 2012 Chevrolet drivers Alain Menu or Rob Huff, both would have still been a tough benchmark for Sébastien Loeb to measure himself against in his first season in the Championship, but at least he’d only be fighting them in the race for points, not the race for headlines in their national media as he now will be with Muller as his team-mate.

For Citroën, with two ticks in the ‘have a French driver’ box, the question now is what to do about the other driver. There’s still the possibility that the manufacturer could still sign Menu of Huff for a third car, and make sure that they have a line-up which will have the Honda team certainly rattled as the Japanese manufacturer heads into their second season, but then at the same time Citroën will probably be suffering with similar headaches to those with which Eric Néve and Christian Horner have been plagued with in recent years.

Former Formula 1 driver turned rally star Robert Kubica is almost certain to make an appearance for some rounds next season, but it would seem his primary focus for this year and next will be the World Rally Championship, and so if there is to be a permanent resident in the third car, who will it be?

Citroën have made no secret of the fact that the target markets for this adventure are South America and China. That’s both in press statements and their selection of their car for 2014, the C-Elysée, which is only available in selected markets. To complete the package, choosing a South American or a Chinese driver would be an ideal move.

The issue then becomes who. The Chinese ‘touring car’ driver market is relatively limited. There are a lot of Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau touring car racers in their national series, but it’s generally considered that the standard of the top drivers in those championships isn’t really near the standard needed to race competitively in the WTCC. Macanese and Hong Kong drivers generally fill up the back of the grid during the last two flyaway rounds, admittedly in older machinery.

Already on the grid are two Chinese drivers, both from Hong Kong, which are Charles Ng and Darryl O’Young. Unfortunately both are still having a challenging time in the WTCC at the moment. Although O’Young has had occasional flashes of brilliance, mostly in the Chevrolet, and perhaps surprised many whilst in both his and bamboo-engineering’s debut season he went to the Macau finale in contention for the independent drivers’ title, things have gone a little awry in the past two seasons with Special Tuning Racing and ROAL Motorsport.

The other option for Citroën is to look at South America, a major market for the French brand. Just coming from Argentina, the importance of that country to the French car manufacturing industry is clear. Renault currently has the highest market share of new cars in that country, whilst PSA Peugeot Citroën combined is the fourth largest, behind Volkswagen and Chevrolet.

Already showing the standard of the Argentinian contingent which compete in the country’s national championships last weekend was José María López. The three-time Super TC 2000 champion took an impressive victory on his first weekend in the WTCC, and it’s not as though he’s the runaway leader at home either, with Matías Rossi, Agustín Canapino and Leonel Pernía (the first Argentinian WTCC driver) all fierce competitors.

And then there’s also Brazil. Augusto Farfus was a WTCC mainstay from 2005 to 2010, and another popular Brazilian, Carlos ‘Cacá’ Bueno has impressed in the WTCC before, racing twice for Chevrolet, finishing on the podium in the first race of the 2011 season. To entice a driver from Brazil’s popular Stock Car championship would also be a coup for Citroën as it works to improve the profile of its brand in South America.

PSA Peugeot Citroën’s position in the Brazilian market is a lot weaker than it is in Argentina. In July, the group was ranked in ninth place with 3.1% of the market share, whilst home rival Renault is fifth on 7.3%, with Fiat, Chevrolet and Volkswagen the most popular brands.

Taking a local driver out of a national championship though will come at a cost to the French manufacturer. The motorsport market in South America, including their stock car and touring car series do actually see their drivers paid due to a lot of support from the national dealers and big budget sponsors, so to extract one to the WTCC could cost as much or even more than an experienced WTCC driver. It would certainly be a gamble, but if they want to get the attention of those countries’ national media it’s a gamble they would have to take.