Rallye-eMag /The Teams of the 2014 season
In 2013 Mads Østberg got promoted to be a
full works driver. He was thankful for the opportunity as he told us at the beginning of the
season. “Especially the amount of testing I can
now do is completely different form what I’ve
been used to and if I ask for some technical
chance, I simply get it...” A year later now it is
clear that this has not been his season. Thierry
Neuville managed to get all attention and Østberg just had a lot of misfortune. “I’m not afraid
of my teammate,” he confided to us mid season. “I know what went wrong and mostly it
has not been my mistake.”
But at the end of the season he jumped for
the chance Citroën gave him. The Norwegian
who started his WRC career at the age of
nineteen, is still young and can still develop a
lot. He scored his first points in 2007 and conSheikh Khaled Al-Qassimi
12/40
From
Born
1st WRC Event
Starts
Wins
Podiums
Titles
Best rally result
Best Championat result
United Arab Emirates
18-02-1972
Greece 2004
45
0
0
0
5th (Australia 2011)
12th (09, 10)
tinued doing so the following years. His pace
kept improving and he completed his first full
program in 2011. The next year was his real
breakthrough year. In Portugal he took his first
win, though it took the disqualification of Mikko
Hirvonen for him to do so. Eventually he finished fourth overall in the championship just
behind Jari Matti Latvala, the leading driver of
the official Ford team. Further development
in 2013 did not seem to come however. Consistency is the key to winning championships.
Formerly he could bring that, but in 2013 this
ability seemed to have left him. But Yves Matton remembered the earlier performances and
gave him another chance. If he can get back
the consistency and up his pace a bit this year,
he could actually be challenging for the top
spots.
Al Qassimi is the man who in 2014 still provides the sponsorship essential to the Citroën team. Sheikh Khaled Al-Qassimi is the
chairman of the board of Abu Dhabi Racing.
The company is responsible for bolstering the emirate’s presence in global motorsport. From this company the majority of the
funding of the Citroën teams stems. Don’t
think he is only there because of the money
though. Al-Qassimi learned the craft of rallying by starting at the bottom and driving his
way up through various cars and local championships before embarking on a global campaign. In the early zeroes Al-Qassimi began
competing in group N cars in the Middle East
Rally Championship (MERC) before switching to Ford to compete on WRC level. By
now the UAE’er has finished in the points on
Mads Østberg
From
Norway
Birthday
11-11-1987
Co driver
Jonas Andersson (SWE)
First WRC event Rally Sweden 2006
Starts
65
Wins
1
Podiums
7
Titles
0
Best rally result
1st (Portugal 2012)
Best Championship result 4th in 2012
various rallies and made a name for himself
as one of the most spectacular drivers out
there. This makes him the perfect ambassador for the sport in his country (ok, his good
looks and smooth talk don’t hurt either!)
This ambassadorship is one of his most
important tasks in the championship as Abu
Dhabi racing is also very keen on developing
rally talent from the Arab region. Apart from
the WRC teams, the deal with Citroën also
includes a program for young talented drivers. Al Qassimi will only compete in selected
events. His programme consists of Sweden,
Portugal, Italy and Spain. Furthermore he’ll
compete in the complete Middle East Rally
Championship.