Citroen C2 proves competitive

There was room for speculation if the Citroen C2 S1600 car doesn’t live up to Citroen’s own expectations. The official claim for the car’s delay is parts supply problems, but Citroen fans have also noted that Citroen WRC team manager Francois Chatriot had recently been moved to become an exclusive manager of the C2 S1600 project. However it has to be said that so far the car seems to be reliable and now we have a strong indication that the car should be competitive enough to turn a class winner sooner rather than later.

So far the Citroen C2’s competitiveness may have been the main worry, if not for Citroen, then for the Citroen fans. Fact is that there are two Kronos prepared and run Citroen C2 in the French Championship. Here it is maybe hard to judge the drivers as Citroen gives the cars to two newcomers: Patrick Henry and Yoann Bonato, who are up against drivers as Renault’s Simon Jean-Joseph & current JWRC leader Nicolas Bernardi and Peugeot’s Cedric Robert & Bryan Bouffier. Here, in 4 championship rallies so far on Citroen’s home market, the C2 is utterly dominated in its class by arch rivals Renault Clio and Peugeot 206 XS. More of a benchmark is maybe Bruno Thiry, after all the reigning ERChampion and a former WRC star. Bruno Thiry this year again competes for the ERC title, but proceedings don’t seem to go as well as wished for the Kronos Bastos Citroen C2 team. Thiry repeatedly claimed the car needs more testing. The latest ERC event was Thiry's home event, the Ypres Rally, an event Thiry won in the previous 2 years with the Peugeot 206 WRC. In 2004, with WRCars banned from ERC events, Renault celebrated a 1-2 in Ypres with Thiry’s Citroen C2 being in 7th place, 3m23.7s off the pace.

For all the Citroen S1600 fans and drivers last weekend was superb news, as it was proven the Citroen C2 can be a winner. On the Eifel Rally the Citroen C2 actually missed the category win, but only by 2 seconds! Sven Haaf and his navigator Michael Wenzel have taken the Willy Lux prepared Citroen Deutschland entered Saxo to 4 maximum scores in the first 5 events of their home championship. In all this, there was no lack of competition, often results being a matter of split seconds. The reigning German S1600 champion is Carsten Mohe in one of the superb Renault Clio, Horst Rotter drives the very Opel Corsa that was used by Kris Meeke in the JWRC last season and Nicky Schelle is an official Suzuki Ignis test driver and assistant manager. Against this superb field, missing the class victory by 2s was a little sad for Sven Haaf, for the sake of 2 seconds Sven’s Citroen C2 debut could have ended with claiming the 2004 German S1600 title with two events left to go! As it is, Sven Haaf leads the category by 15points and only the Suzuki works driver Nicky Schelle still has a chance to steal the title away from the Citroen team.

It was not only an interesting battle, but Sven Haaf also had some interesting conclusions for Citroen. He agrees that the C2 lacks testing as far as the experience with set up solutions is missing. The engine is very strong, the main difference seems to be the C2’s wheelbase, which is 80mm shorter than that of the Saxo. Said Sven: “For the C2 to not be too nervous, we need to stiffen the rear suspension. However the stiff rear suspension results in a loss of front end traction. We worked on this throughout the event and found a very good compromise. We were so far, that when you drive the C2 with force, it was very good indeed. But exactly then it started raining and to then drive in attack mode is not a good idea.”

In fact, after SS7 Sven Haaf and the Citroen C2 lead the class by 16.9s. But it started raining soon after and in SS10, by now in heavy rain, Sven had two minor spins, dropping around 25s in the process. It was adviseable to reduce speed before the new car would show signs of an attempted re-design. With 5 stages to go Nicky Schelle in the Suzuki Ignis was leading Sven Haaf and the C2 by 20.8s. In the last 5 stages the roads had dried out and Haaf decided to attack again. 5 stages later the 20.8s gap was near completely erased, the Citroen C2 came within only 2s of it’s first ever victory! In the process Sven Haaf, Michael Wenzel and their Citroen C2 won the S1600 category in no less than 10 of the 16 stages!

For all this Sven Haaf and Michael Wenzel are preparing for the next sensation for Citroen: As Guerlain Chicherit is entered in Rally Finland in the Saxo once more it will be Sven Haaf to give the Citroen C2 its WRC debut on the forthcoming Rallye Deutschland. Unfortunately the Rallye Deutschland is not a JWRC scoring event. In 2002 Sven Haaf was leading the entire JWRC class including A6 drivers Simon Jean-Joseph and Cedric Robert on Rallye Deutschland before an engine problem sidelined him on day2. This year the S1600 competition will be low on this event. However Citroen as well as Sven Haaf should profit hugely from testing and trying set ups on this WRC event.