Rallye-eMag /The Teams of the 2014 season
For a long time the rally world feared that Citroën
would drop out of the championship. With Sebastien Loeb leaving for touring car honours rally fans
thought Citroen’s love for rallying would leave with
him.
was the issue of sponsorship.
That problem being out of the way, Matton could
focus on item two on his preferred drivers list,
Robert Kubica. Negotiations went well until there
Second driver is Mads Østberg who competed in
Neuville’s shadow last year. Third driver is Khalid
Al Qassimi, the constant factor in this year’s Citroen team.
Kubica’s personal sponsor, Polish oil company
Lotos, was not prepared to play second fiddle to
long time Citroën sponsor Total and ended the
negotiations. The marriage between the team and
Hirvonen had never been a happy one nor was
However with the three-year Abu Dhabi contract
still in place they at least had a financial base. Like the one with Sordo, so Matton started to shop
Malcolm Wilson, Citroën Racing’s teamboss Yves elsewhere. Kris Meeke has proven to be fast and
although he also tended to be crash prone, he was
Matton was faced with the same problem: Thierry
given the benefit of the doubt. Not in the last place
Neuville and where would he sign? In an early
because the British driver is a real hero in his
stage the Belgian made clear he wouldn’t sign for
home country.
Citroën.
Kris Meeke
11/40
From:
Northern Ireland
Birthday:
2-07-1979
Co driver:
Paul Nagle (IRL)
First WRC event Wales Rally GB 2002
Starts
40
Wins
0
Podiums
1
Titles
0
Best rally result
3rd (Monte Carlo 2014)
Best Championship result: 11th in 2011
Kris Meeke started his career as a technical designer working for or M-Sport. But it
did not take long before he took the steering wheel in his hands. After some practice
in all kinds of cup series he first went to
the WRC in 2003. In his initial years in the
JWRC he struggled with a lot of technical
problems but in 2005 he changed to the
Citroën C2 S1600. It was there he met Dani
Sordo for the first time. Sordo was faster
than his friend and colleague Meeke and
won the junior championship. Meeke ended
as third behind Guy Wilks. In 2009 and
2010 he struggled in the IRC series where
he eventually finished third in the 2010
championship. His big chance seemed to
come in 2011 when he was called by Mini
to drive one of their World Rally Cars. He
became teammate to Dani Sordo. Unfortu-
Citroën Total Abu Dhabi
World Rally Team
nately the Mini project was only short lived
and in 2012 he was partially side lined because of a lack of funds. In 2013 he got two
chances in a factory backed Citroën in Finland and in Australia. In Finland he drove
a very good rally until the infamous Ouhninpohja stage trapped him. He went off
and out of the rally. In Australia he replaced
Sordo but went off twice. “This is the end,”
everyone thought, Meeke included. But
Yves Matton thought differently and asked
the Northern Irishman to join his team.
Which obviously Meeke did quite happily.