WTCC ; Cinq Citroën sur la grille en 2015 / Citroën expands to five cars in 2015

Au terme d’une première saison couronnée des sacres Pilotes et Constructeurs, Citroën annonce étendre à cinq voitures sa présence en WTCC en 2015.

Le team Citroën Total retient en premier lieu les trois pilotes qui ont monopolisé le podium final du championnat : José María López, Yvan Muller et Sébastien Loeb.

« Nous sommes totalement satisfaits de nos pilotes, et eux même n’ont jamais imaginé aller ailleurs. Ce fut donc un accord facile à conclure », explique Yves Matton, le Team Principal de Citroën Racing.

Deux autres C-Elysée seront par ailleurs alignées à titre privé par le Sébastien Loeb Racing. « Chaque année, nous avons essayé de franchir un palier et bénéficier d’un programme de cette envergure, avec Citroën, c’est forcément une étape très importante. Notre développement se poursuit », explique Sébastien Loeb.

« Confier les deux Citroën C-Elysée WTCC privées à SLR sonnait comme une évidence », ajoute Yves Matton. « Les deux voitures seront des châssis 2014 reconditionnés à neuf et bénéficiant de toutes les évolutions que nous introduirons la saison prochaine », poursuit Yves Matton.

Ma Qing Hua, qui a pris le départ de cinq meetings avec une quatrième Citroën d’usine, et qui s’est imposé à Moscou, devrait être l’un des pilotes, dont les identités seront révélées dans les prochaines semaines.

Following a very successful maiden season that was worth the Manufacturers’ Championship and the Drivers’ Championship, Citroën announced it will expand its presence to five cars in 2015.

The Citroën Total team will retain the same three drivers who filled the championship podium this year: José María López, Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb.
“We were completely satisfied with our drivers, and they didn’t have any thoughts of going elsewhere, so it was easy to sort out,” explained team principal Yves Matton
Two further C-Elysée cars will be run on a private basis by the Sébastien Loeb Racing Team.
“Since it was created, SLR has amassed real know-how at international circuits, in both GT and sports prototype racing. The FIA WTCC marks a new stage in the team’s development,” said Loeb.
“Entrusting the two private cars to SLR was an obvious choice,” added Matton. “These will be good-as-new reconditioned 2014 chassis, complete with all the developments we introduce next season.”Ma Qing Hua, who drove in five of the 2014 events a fourth factory Citroën, claiming one race victory at Moscow Raceway, is expected to be one of the SLR drivers.

The incredible story of Norman Dewis

Two years ago, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, I found myself chatting to Norman Dewis during one of those lengthy delays while something broken is removed from the hill. He was waiting to drive a C-type, I was there to write, but we had each nabbed a chair in the same section of tented paddock.

The name Norman Dewis is inseparable from the development of the Jaguar brand between 1952, when he joined the company, and 1985 when he finally retired, so you might think that making light conversation on subjects other than Jaguar would be… challenging. Not a bit of it. For the best part of an hour, Norman talked enthusiastically and without the slightest hint of self-importance, on subjects ranging from Jaguar, to tackling the Goodwood hillclimb at speed, to the hat worn by a glamorous race-goer tottering past on high heels. I now find that this self-effacing good humour is mentioned by almost everyone who meets him but, according to his biographer Paul Skilleter, it was not always that way. “On duty all those years ago… he was often businesslike to the point of brusqueness,” writes Skilleter in the introduction to his book, ‘Norman Dewis of Jaguar’.

When you consider the responsibilities facing the young test driver and engineer, it’s hardly surprising.

From rear gunner to test driver

Having survived the war years – no mean feat, given that he was a rear gunner in the RAF – Dewis became chief tester at Lea-Francis, before joining Jaguar in January 1952. Here he was given the responsibility of developing all the race and road-going cars – and over the next 33 years he was crucial to the success of the XK140 and 150, the C-type and D-type, Mk2 saloon, the E-type, XJ13,XJ-S and many more, not to mention being instrumental in the development of the disc brake.

No days off 

You’d think that would be enough to take up every waking minute, but no, as a works driver he also raced a D-type at the world’s top events, his skill behind the wheel proving useful on the track as well as in assessing a car’s handling and performance. His life has been too full of achievement even to summarise the major achievements, so we’ll pick just one anecdote to convey the essence of Norman Dewis. It’s well known that, in 1971, Dewis was driving an XJ13 at the MIRA test track (for a publicity film on the V12 E-type) when a rear tyre went suddenly flat, resulting in a serious accident. The car rolled two or three times and, needless to say, it was all but destroyed. And Dewis? Well, that’s the most remarkable thing – he was back at work the following day.

Decades of dedication

His dedication to hard work hasn’t changed in all the decades since. On that day at Goodwood in 2012, Dewis drove a C-type up the hill and, straight after the Festival, mentioned that he was jetting off on a lecture tour of America. Not bad for someone of 91.

Photos: © Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust