A new era with the Citroen Junior Team

Building on the foundations laid in 2008, the Citroen Junior Team will take the start of the first round of
the year with three Citroen C4 WRCs. The crews of Australian Chris Atkinson and Belgian Stéphane
Prevot (n.7), together with Zimbabwe’s Conrad Rautenbach and Briton Daniel Barritt have been chosen
to score team points in the World Championship for Manufacturers. The French crew of Sébastien Ogier
and Julien Ingrassia will drive the third Citroen C4 WRC, which wears number 11.

Rally Ireland marks the start of a season that will take in 12 rounds, and just like last year the rally
route will run on roads through both the Republic of Ireland and also the United Kingdom. The fast,
narrow and bumpy stages are guaranteed to pose a real challenge for the crews. The local weather at
the end of January could well take in ice and snow – so all the drivers will be forced to think on their
feet!

Chris Atkinson is the only member of the Citroen Junior Team to have already competed on the Rally
Ireland, but he will be making his debut in the Citroen C4 WRC. After a test session earlier in January,
the young Australian was already impressed. “I had a good feeling with the car straight away and I felt
more and more comfortable with every kilometre that went by,” he said. “The Citroen C4 WRC is
different to the other cars that I have driven before. The more I attack the better it seems to work.”
The Australian is now looking forward to a welcoming but challenging event. “There’s a fantastic
atmosphere with a huge crowd,” he said. “The event itself is really tricky. The roads are bumpy and
often very dirty. At this time of year, we might even find some ice. We’re going to start the event using
settings that the team has already established from the past. Then, when it comes to the start of the
rally, we will see how we are getting on. I’ve got no other aim other than just to score some points for
the Citroen Junior Team and demonstrate our competitiveness compared to the other crews.”

Following his debut season in the Citroen C4 WRC last year, Conrad Rautenbach is planning to up his
game in 2009. “I learnt a lot from last year,” he said. “That first season with Citroen Sport Technologies
allowed me to gain a lot of experience. I now understand the C4 WRC and its behaviour a lot better.
This year, I’ll be able to push much harder in the places that I know well. Rally Ireland is certainly one
of the most difficult events of the whole championship though. My primary objective will be to get to
the finish with the aim of scoring points. I was able to see once more just how difficult the roads in
Ireland were when I took part in national rally there in January, driving a Citroen Xsara WRC. The
conditions were particularly difficult and I’m sure that will be the case again on the Rally Ireland next
week. The event also allowed me to get up to speed with my new co-driver, Daniel Barritt. So
everything went really well.”

After clinching the 2008 Junior World Rally Championship in a Citroen C2 Super 1600, Sébastien Ogier
will now tackle his first season at the wheel of a World Rally Car. “The 2009 season promises to be a
nice one for me, thanks to a very good programme with the Citroen Junior Team,” he said. “I took part
in the Ulster Rally last year with a Citroen C2-R2 MAX. It was my first experience of Irish roads, even
though the profile of the World Rally Championship event there looks somewhat different. I think this is
going to be a very complex rally, with some ice and frost expected at this time of year. The roads are
narrow and bumpy, plus they get dirty very quickly. By starting the first day around 10th on the road,
we are sure to find some particularly delicate conditions. My key objective is to finish. I don’t have any
real pressure in terms of results: I just need to keep making progress and learning as the event goes
on.”

Three questions to...Benoit Nogier - Team Manager – Citroen Junior Team

What is the thinking behind the Citroen Junior Team?
“This initiative is a natural continuation of the programme that we put in place last year. Our aim was
to enter a genuine manufacturer team. This project led to the birth of the Citroen Junior Team. It’s an
opportunity to maximise our growing profile, even though we are very aware that we have different
objectives to the factory team. The Citroen Junior Team is a programme with which to develop drivers.
Thanks to this structure, we hope to find some future drivers for Citroen.”

How will the team operate throughout the course of the season?
“The exact programmes are still being finalised. We have entered the Citroen Junior Team onto all 12
rounds of the 2009 calendar with a minimum of two cars per event, which allows us to score points
towards the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers on each round. Conrad Rautenbach will be
present on all 12 rallies. Eugeny Novikov will start his eight-round programme on the Rally Norway.
Sébastien Ogier will take part in the first six rallies, but he has a real opportunity to bulk out his
programme as the season goes on. As for Chris Atkinson, he will drive one of our Citroen C4 WRCs in
Ireland. As we already made clear when we signed the deal there are no plans currently in place
beyond then, even though there’s a strong will to do so from both sides.”

What is the team’s goal on its World Championship debut?
We would like to prove that we can be competitive compared to the opposition. The average age of our
four drivers – Chris Atkinson, Conrad Rautenbach, Sébastien Ogier and Evgeny Novikov – is just 22.
They will all certainly want to demonstrate their outright speed, but the team’s objective is for them to
acquire as much World Rally Championship experience as possible and get to the finish of each event.
That’s our priority.”