Citroën and Michelin: a winning combination in the WRC

Citroën has announced its intention to curtail its involvement in the FIA World Rally Championship. Together, the French car firm and Michelin have harvested five Manufacturers’ titles, four Drivers’ crowns, 58 world-class wins and 150 podium finishes.

Citroën and Michelin were partners in topflight rallying well before the creation of the WRC in 1973. Indeed, in the 1950s, the French firms gleaned success in the sport with the ID and DS.

The pairing’s first world championship podium was notched up by Portugal’s Francisco Romaozinho who obtained a top-three finish driving a DS21 on his home event – the Rali Internacional TAP – in 1973.

The brand’s programme with the BX4TC in the 1980s failed to make an impact, but Citroën and Michelin returned to the series in resounding fashion when Philippe Bugalski took a surprising win in Catalonia in 1999, beating the powerful four-wheel drive contenders of the day in his two-wheel drive Xsara Kit-Car. The result was the fruit of a long technical collaboration between Citroën and Michelin in several national championships.

Three years later, again with Michelin, Citroën contested a programme of selected WRC rounds that saw young Sébastien Loeb take his debut win in Germany. The French team upgraded to a full assault in 2003 with a star-studded line-up comprising Loeb, Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. The year’s opening clash – the Rallye Monte-Carlo – produced a landmark one-two-three finish for the Citroën Xsara WRC/Michelin.

From 2003 until 2005, Citroën and Michelin practically ruled the WRC roost, claiming three straight Manufacturers’ crowns, two Drivers’ titles with Loeb and 22 outright wins, including a record-breaking 11 in 2005 alone. The same year saw it post the championship’s longest ever unbeaten run (six events), while Loeb, Citroën and Michelin were fastest on all 12 stages in Corsica!

To prepare for its return with the C4 WRC in 2007, Citroën took a year off in 2006, but that didn’t prevent Loeb from dominating the series in a privately-run Citroën Xsara WRC competing on Michelin Group tyres.

Citroën and Michelin joined forces at WRC level once more in 2011, the season that marked the Clermont-Ferrand-based tyre company’s return to the championship. The two partners hit the ground running to secure back-to-back Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles in 2011 and 2012 before Loeb’s ‘retirement’ from the series.

Citroën had another spell away to prepare for a comeback with the current Citroën C3 WRC/Michelin in 2017. The programme proved less successful, however, although reigning world champion monde Sébastien Ogier succeeded in earning the French make’s 100th WRC victory on this year’s Rallye Monte-Carlo on Michelin rubber.