The Citroën C4 WRC is a

World Rally Car A World Rally Car is a racing automobile built to the specific regulations set by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and designed for competition in the World Rally Championship (WRC). The cars were introduced in 1997 as a repl ...

built for the

Citroën World Rally Team The Citroën Total World Rally Team was the Citroën factory backed entry into the World Rally Championship, run by Citroën Racing. History 1990–1998 seasons The Citroën ZX Rally raid won the Rally raid Constructors' Championship in 1993, 1 ...

Citroën Racing Citroën Racing is a motorsport brand and department of the French automobile manufacturer, ''Automobiles Citroën''. It is most notable for entering the Citroën World Rally Team into the World Rally Championship until 2019, thus helping to pro ...

to compete in the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

. It is based upon the Citroën C4 road car and replaced the

Citroën Xsara WRC The Citroën Xsara WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Citroën Xsara road car. The car was introduced for the 2001 World Rally Champ ...

. The car was introduced for the 2007 World Rally Championship season and has taken the drivers' title each year since in the hands of

Sébastien Loeb Sébastien Loeb (; born 26 February 1974) is a French professional rallying, rally, auto racing, racing and rallycross driver. He is the most successful driver in the World Rally Championship (WRC), having won the world championship a record nin ...

, as well as the manufacturers' title in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The C4 WRC and Loeb maintained a 100% record on asphalt events during its WRC career, winning all 13 pure asphalt rounds of the World Rally Championship.

Competition history

2007

The car made its debut at the

2007 Monte Carlo Rally The 2007 Monte Carlo Rally (formally known as the ) was a rallying autosports race held over four days between and , and operated out of , France. It was the first race of the 2007 World Rally Championship (WRC) season. Contested over fiftee ...

in the hands of

drivers

and

Daniel Sordo Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland. Career Sordo began in motocross when ...

. Loeb won the rally after leading throughout, with Sordo finishing as runner-up, with the pair winning the first nine of 15 stages. Loeb went on to win seven of the remaining 15 rallies that season to beat Ford's

Marcus Grönholm Marcus Ulf Johan Grönholm (born February 5, 1968) is a Finnish former rally and rallycross driver, being part of a family of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland lineage. His son, Niclas Grönholm, is an upcoming FIA World Rallycross Cha ...

to the title by nine points. Sordo finished fourth in the standings.

2008

Citroën retained Loeb and Sordo in their team for 2008, with Loeb winning 11 out of 15 rallies to take the title, while Sordo finished third in the standings. This was enough for Citroën to regain the manufacturers' crown. C4 WRCs were also run by privateer squad

PH-Sport PH Sport is a motorsport services company based in Langres, France, established in 1990. The company has a history of entering national and international rallies and championships such as the World Rally Championship, often in close cooperation ...

for

Conrad Rautenbach Conrad Rautenbach (born 12 November 1984) is a rally driver from Zimbabwe who competed in the World Rally Championship for the Citroën Junior Team along with his co-driver Daniel Barritt. He won the African Rally Championship twice, in 2007 ...

and Urmo Aava during the season, as well as for

Junior World Rally Championship The FIA Junior WRC, also known as JWRC and previously known as Junior World Rally Championship, is an international rallying competition restricted to drivers under 29 years old. The championship currently consists of five select rallies of th ...

winner

Sébastien Ogier Sébastien Ogier (born 17 December 1983) is a French rally driver, competing for the Toyota Gazoo Racing Team in the World Rally Championship (WRC), who is teamed with the co-driver Julien Ingrassia. He has won the World Rally Drivers' Champions ...

at the final event of the season,

Rally GB Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calen ...

. Ogier lead the event early on despite it being his first in a WRC car.

2009

In 2009, Loeb and Sordo once again drove for the factory squad, with Loeb winning the first five events of the year and then winning the final two to beat Ford driver

Mikko Hirvonen Mikko Hirvonen (born 31 July 1980) is a Finnish former rally driver, and a current Rally-Raid driver, who drove in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 200 ...

to the title by just one point. Sordo finished a solid third as Citroën retained the manufacturers' title. PH-Sport ran a second team of C4 WRCs under the Citroën Junior Team banner for Rautenbach and Ogier, with

Evgeny Novikov Evgeny Maksimovich Novikov (russian: Евгений Максимович Новиков, translit=Yevgeniy Maksimovich Novikov; born 19 September 1990) is a former Russian rally driver who competed in the World Rally Championship from 2007 to 2 ...

Chris Atkinson Chris Atkinson (born 30 November 1979 in Bega, New South Wales, Australia) is a professional rally driver. In the World Rally Championship (WRC), Atkinson drove for the Subaru World Rally Team between 2004 and 2008. His best finish on an indiv ...

and

Aaron Burkart Aaron Nikolai Burkart (born 20 September 1982 in Singen, Baden-Württemberg) is a German rally driver. He is the 2010 Junior World Rally Champion. Career Burkart began rallying in 2002. In 2006, he began competing in the Junior World Rally ...

also appearing under the banner during the year.

Petter Solberg Petter Solberg (born 18 November 1974) is a Norwegian former professional rally and rallycross driver. Solberg debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was signed by the Ford factory team in 1999. The following year, Solberg started ...

ran an old Xsara WRC for his own team for most of the season, before switching to a C4 WRC for the penultimate round, and was then entered under the Junior Team banner for the final round of the season.

2010

Loeb and Sordo continued with the factory team into 2010, while the Junior Team ran Ogier and

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One Wo ...

. Ogier, though, had a strong start to the season (including a win in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

) and so was swapped with Sordo for gravel rounds in the second half of the season. Ogier then won the 2010 Rally Japan as a factory driver. Petter Solberg drove a C4 WRC for his own team and picked up eight podiums over the season, finishing third in the final standings, behind of work's drivers Ogier and Sordo.

WRC victories

Gallery

File:Citroën C4 WRC at the 2006 Paris Motor Show 03.jpg, Citroën C4 WRC at the 2006 Paris Motor Show. File:Sébastien Loeb - 2007 Rally Catalunya 2.jpg,

at 2007 Rally Catalunya. File:Urmo Aava - 2008 Rallye de France SS10.jpg, Urmo Aava at 2008 Rallye de France. File:Dani Sordo - 2008 Rally Catalunya.jpg, Sordo at 2008 Rally Catalunya. File:Sébastien Loeb - 2009 Cyprus Rally.jpg, Loeb at 2009 Rally Cyprus. File:Sébastien Ogier - 2009 Rally Australia.jpg,

at 2009 Rally Australia. File:Petter solberg ss3 lubnitsa bulgaria rally.JPG,

at 2010 Rally Bulgaria. File:Kimi Räikkönen - 2010 Rally Bulgaria.jpg,

at 2010 Rally Bulgaria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Citroen C4 WRC World Rally Cars C4 WRC All-wheel-drive vehicles World Rally championship-winning cars