The Peugeot IRC effort has not really come close to the same dominance it had last year. Kris Meeke has crashed hard and often in his Peugeot S2000 and that has Olivier Quesnel upset and throwing toys from the pram. The team boss has went as far as to say Peugeot will be out of the IRC next year if Skoda fields a factory effort.
In contrast to Peugeot’s terrible luck, Skoda has had an amazing year. They have had drivers on the podium at every event and lead the French squad by 31 points. Quesnel does not find that at all appealing. Skoda has had factory effort as well as factory drivers with the likes of Juho Hanninen and Jan Kopecky crushing the competition. Quesnel proceeded to say that Peugeot does not need the S2000 series and that their true passion is in their prototype racers. I will give him that, but his reaction is out of control to say the least.
He made it clear that Peugeot was not going to spend money in the series if they had to keep giving a good ol thumbs up to Skoda. This has me lost. How can you throw this big a fit if you won the title the year previous? I understand that you are in the sport to win, but just because of one bad season you are going to throw this big a fit? This would be a bit of a shot to the whole IRC as Skoda would have free reign to destroy the field but that does already happen kinda!
The bottom line here is that Peugeot can do whatever it is they like. This problem could be a good break for the WRC as a whole due to the recent news that a number of manufacturers could be jumping in. I think that Olivier needs to calm down and wait it out a year. If you are just as bad next year, then go away, but after one season we get this kind of kick back? Time will tell I suppose.
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Peugeot Sport seems to think that the IRC is for privateers, including car importers (e.g. Peugeot UK), and works teams should be restricted to the WRC (they have a Super 2000 champioship this year).