ABU DHABI // Describing the Citroen C3 WRC 2017 as a “beast”, Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi is confident the all-new car can lead the Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team (WRT) to success in the new World Rally Championship (WRC) season.
The Citroen C3 WRC was unveiled here last night at a glittering function in the Jumeirah Al Etihad Towers hotel to gasps from the audience.
Needless to say, Sheikh Khalid is excited about driving the car next season.
“For sure, we had a fantastic car last season, a really fast car, but this is a completely different beast,” he said. “I have driven it. It’s like a time machine, a bullet.
“The team have built a fantastic car. It’s a piece of art, a much more powerful and a lot more aggressive car. It is a very mean car compared to the one we had last year.”
Sheikh Khalid also said he was confident of winning the championship with the car.
“This car is the future,” he said.
“We, Abu Dhabi Racing, have had a fantastic four-year relationship with Citroen and the global unveiling of this car here in Abu Dhabi shows how strong this bond is.
“Usually when you have a new car, you always launch it in your home country or in a motor show.”
Kris Meeke, Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT’s lead driver in 2016 with two victories — in Portugal and Finland — echoed Sheikh Khalid’s optimism about the C3 WRC, which heralds Citroen’s return as a works team to a championship where they have a record 96 race wins along with 238 podium finishes and eight manufacturers’ titles.
“I am really proud to be part of the Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT,” Meeke said. “It’s a big moment for my career to be part of a factory team. It’s something that I have always dreamt of and hopefully we can be competitive.
“We have worked really hard this year and the goal now is to the world championship.
“We have done a lot of work and yeah, we are ready.”
With Volkswagen — winners of the drivers’ and constructors’ championship in 2016 and the dominant WRC team of the past four years — withdrawing from the series, Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT are being mentioned as favourites for 2017.
But Sheikh Khalid said it will not be easy.
Four-time world champion Sebastien Ogier, who won the 2016 WRC driver’s crown with Volkswagen, will be around to defend his crown, driving for M-Sport Ford.
Toyota, winners of three manufacturer titles in WRC, will be returning to the international rally stage for the first time since 1999 with an all-Finnish line-up that includes the experienced Jari-Matti Latvala, who has finished inside the top four for eight of the last nine seasons, Juho Hanninen and Esapekka Lappi.
“The drivers are still there,” said Sheikh Khalid, who has been busy preparing for his Dakar Rally debut over the past two weeks. “The Championship still has four manufacturers — Citroean, Ford, Toyota and Hyundai.
“So you have two of the four biggest manufacturers of the world, which is Toyota and Hyundai.
“You also have Ford and Sebastien Ogier, who is the world champion, will be driving for them. Ford have been around for a long time.
“So it is too early to say anything. We are launching a new car and it will be a new challenge. Of course, we will be making a greater effort to win more rallies, but we cannot say we will win the championship because it is a new car.
“Yes we can win the championship, but don’t forget the only way to reach our goal of winning the championship is through winning rallies and having less problems,” he pointed out.
“So, we have to wait. It’s a brand-new car and we can only start making judgements after a few rallies.”
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