Citroën set conservative targets for 2014

Citroën Racing’s entry into the FIA World Touring Car Championship in 2014 may appear as an all-out attack, with four-time WTCC champion Yvan Muller, nine-time WRC champion Sébastien Loeb and three-time TC 2000 champion José María López driving for the squad, but team principal Yves Matton has set modest targets for their debut season.

The team will enter three C-Elysée touring cars for the full season, based on the French marque’s C-segment saloon aimed at developing markets around the globe. The car is built to the WTCC’s new Super 2000 rules which will compete in what will be known as the TC1 class from 2014.

Although Citroën have a head-start in terms of technical development of the car, having been working on it since before the regulations were officially brought forward to 2014, with the marque being new to the WTCC vs. rivals Honda, Lada and RML (Chevrolet), Matton isn’t expecting to be as strong from the outset as perhaps some of their rivals are expecting them to be.

“We need to learn a lot, it’s really a new discipline for us,” said Matton at the team’s launch at their Versailles headquarters. “We want to improve, when we go to a discipline the idea is always to try to win. And for sure, in the second part of the season we want to be in the position to at least win one event,” he added.

The team are understood to be testing the car again next week ahead of their Championship debut in April. Honda plans to test their first new car later in January, with Lada following in February, with RML’s new Chevrolet Cruze not set to hit the track until March, with the first car to be delivered to Spanish team Campos Racing.