Citroen has expressed interest in having a 3 car outfit next year reports Autosport. The team has run into a slight dilemma regarding their second factory seat.
Dani Sordo is currently working his fourth season as a Citroen factory driver. The Spanish driver has not scored a WRC win to date and has really been in the shadow of his teammate Sebastian Loeb. Dani’s performance to this point in 2010 has been forgettable as the likes of Sebastian Ogier and Petter Solberg have really shined in their smaller run C4s. The answer to this dilemma is to have a third factory supported seat in the 2011 campaign. This would see Loeb, Ogier, and Sordo all driving up to date cars for the French marquee. This in itself raises a couple of other questions, what happens to Kimi Raikkonen and the Citroen Junior team? Do they keep the program running and bring a fresh driver into the fold? Is this any indication of Kimi’s F1 future? Probably not, but one thing that also stands out is only two cars are eligible for points. From what I have seen, Ogier has bested Sordo on nearly every competition except when Ogier crashes. Loeb will obviously be a points contender every weekend, but that will raise more questions for the team to answer.
I don’t really understand this move at all. In my opinion, I would move Sordo to the junior squad and just promote Ogier. Sordo has proven he cannot win, and Ogier has proven he can with an inferior car but not overcome his own gremlins. Ogier is the future of the squad and Sordo has ruined his chance in my opinion.
I wonder how much of this is stroking Sordo to make him feel good so he finishes out the season not worrying about his seat for next year. Everybody, including Sordo, knows that Ogier deserves his seat now.