# Citroën Junior Team

The Citroën Junior Team was a World Rally Championship team that competed in the 2009, 2010 and 2012 seasons. It was established as a second team for the Citroën brand and was presented as a vehicle to develop young talent.
The team was also the flagship WRC team for Citroën Racing's customer racing department, Citroën Racing Technologies (CRT), which was in existence between 2007 and 2012. As with all of CRT's customer privateers and team, the Citroën Junior Team was run on events by third-party preparation firm PH Sport.

## History
### Background

PH Sport and Citroën Sport Technologies ran semi-privateer Citroën C4 WRCs for Conrad Rautenbach and Urmo Aava during the 2008 World Rally Championship season.

### 2009

The Citroën Junior Team was formed in 2009 following the withdrawal of manufacturers Subaru and Suzuki. It ran Citroën C4s for Russian Evgeny Novikov, Zimbabwean Conrad Rautenbach and Junior World Rally Championship champion Sébastien Ogier. It ran former Subaru driver Chris Atkinson rather than Novikov on the season-opening Rally Ireland, although despite a good performance, the Australian did not feature in the team again. Petter Solberg was nominated to score manufacturer points for the team at Rally GB. Solberg finished fourth there, with another driver of Citroën Junior Team Aaron Burkart finishing 12th in his first WRC rally with WRC car.

### 2010

On 4 December 2009, it was announced that 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Räikkönen would drive for the Junior Team for his switch to rallying. Räikkönen's co-driver would be Kaj Lindström who had partnered multiple world champion Tommi Mäkinen in the past, while Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia were in a second car for the Junior Team.
Räikkönen and Lindström contested 12 out of the 13 rounds in the 2010 WRC season, missing only the Rally of New Zealand. They did not start at 2010 Rally Catalunya because of a crash at the pre-event shakedown.
Sébastien Ogier claimed Citroën Junior Team's best result, winning at 2010 Rally de Portugal. Because of his strong finishes he was promoted to Citroën World Rally Team for gravel rallies (Finland, Japan, Wales) while Dani Sordo switched to Citroën Junior Team for those rallies. The best result for Kimi Räikkönen was 5th place at 2010 Rally of Turkey.

### 2011

The 'Junior Team' banner was dropped for 2011 as Ogier was promoted to the Citroën World Rally Team. A change in WRC regulations allowed customers of Citroën Racing Technologies to each enter in their own teams with just one car. Petter Solberg, Peter van Merksteijn Jr. and Kimi Räikkönen entered this way in 2011, still using cars from CRT and operated on event by PH Sport.

### 2012

The Junior Team name was revived as Thierry Neuville entered the WRC in a one-car team after a successful two-year campaign in IRC with Peugeot 207 S2000 run by Peugeot BelLux. His best result was fourth at the Rally de France Alsace and he finished the season in seventh position.

### 2013–

The Citroën Racing Technologies name disappeared after 2012 as Citroën Racing's customer offerings focused on its new DS3 Regional Rally Car, R5, R3T and R1 cars rather than World Rally Cars. No privateer teams contested the WRC manufacturers' championship again in Citroën World Rally Cars, perhaps arguably with the exception of the Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team in 2016, which was the existing Citroën World Rally Team without an official manufacturer entry, entered again through PH Sport.

### WRC Results

| Year | Entrant | Car | No | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | WDC | Points | TC | Points |
| 2008 | World Rally Team Estonia | Citroën C4 WRC | 15 | Urmo Aava | MON | SWE 18 | MEX | ARG | JOR Ret | ITA 8 | GRE 4 | TUR Ret | FIN 15 | GER 8 | NZL 5 | ESP Ret | FRA 7 | JPN | GBR | 11th | 13 | – | – |
| 2008 | Conrad Rautenbach | Citroën Xsara WRC | 21 | Conrad Rautenbach | MON Ret | SWE 16 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 15th | 6 | – | – |
| 2008 | Conrad Rautenbach | Citroën C4 WRC | 16 | Conrad Rautenbach | | | MEX 15 | ARG 4 | JOR 26 | ITA 13 | GRE 10 | TUR 8 | FIN 10 | GER 13 | NZL Ret | ESP Ret | FRA 14 | JPN Ret | GBR 15 | 15th | 6 | – | – |
| 2008 | Equipe de France FFSA | Citroën C4 WRC | 17 | Sébastien Ogier | MON | SWE | MEX | ARG | JOR | ITA | GRE | TUR | FIN | GER | NZL | ESP | FRA | JPN | GBR 26 | 19th | 1 | – | – |
| 2009 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 7 | Chris Atkinson | IRE 5 | NOR | CYP | POR | ARG | ITA | GRE | POL | FIN | AUS | ESP | GBR | | | | 14th | 4 | 4th | 47 |
| 2009 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 7 | Evgeny Novikov | IRE | NOR 11 | CYP Ret | POR Ret | ARG | ITA 5 | GRC 16 | POL 9 | FIN Ret | AUS | ESP Ret | GBR | | | | 13th | 4 | 4th | 47 |
| 2009 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 8 | Conrad Rautenbach | IRE 18 | NOR Ret | CYP 6 | POR Ret | ARG Ret | ITA 9 | GRE 5 | POL 8 | FIN Ret | AUS Ret | ESP 11 | GBR 8 | | | | 10th | 9 | 4th | 47 |
| 2009 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 11 | Petter Solberg | IRE | NOR | CYP | POR | ARG | ITA | GRE | POL | FIN | AUS | ESP | GBR 4 | | | | 5th | 35 | 4th | 47 |
| 2009 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 12 | Sébastien Ogier | IRE 6 | NOR 10 | CYP Ret | POR 17 | ARG 7 | ITA Ret | GRE 2 | POL Ret | FIN 6 | AUS 5 | ESP 5 | GBR Ret | | | | 8th | 24 | 4th | 47 |
| 2009 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 16 | Aaron Burkart | IRE | NOR | CYP | POR | ARG | ITA | GRE | POL | FIN | AUS | ESP | GBR 12 | | | | – | 0 | 4th | 47 |
| 2010 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 7 | Sébastien Ogier | SWE 5 | MEX 3 | JOR 6 | TUR 4 | NZL 2 | POR 1 | BUL 4 | | GER 3 | | FRA 6 | ESP 10 | | | | 4th | 167 | 3rd | 217 |
| 2010 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 7 | Dani Sordo | | | | | | | | FIN 5 | | JPN 4 | | | GBR 5 | | | 5th | 150 | 3rd | 217 |
| 2010 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën C4 WRC | 8 | Kimi Räikkönen | SWE 29 | MEX Ret | JOR 8 | TUR 5 | NZL | POR 10 | BUL 11 | FIN 25 | GER 7 | JPN Ret | FRA Ret | ESP DNS | GBR 8 | | | 10th | 25 | 3rd | 217 |
| 2012 | Citroën Junior Team | Citroën DS3 WRC | 23 | Thierry Neuville | MON Ret | SWE 12 | MEX 13 | POR 8 | ARG 5 | GRE 6 | NZL | FIN 16 | GER 12 | GBR 7 | FRA 4 | ITA | ESP 12 | | | 7th | 53 | 5th | 72 |

## Gallery

* Evgeny Novikov driving a Citroën Junior Team-run Citroën C4 WRC at the 2009 Cyprus Rally
* Sébastien Ogier at the 2009 Rally Australia
* Dani Sordo during his first rally for Citroën Junior Team at 2010 Rally Finland.
* Kimi Räikkönen at the 2010 Rally Bulgaria