Sébastien Ogier, six-time world rally champion, has announced that he will be leaving Citroën, who, by domino effect, "has decided to put an end to his sports program in WRC 2020".

The six-time world rally champion, Sébastien Ogier, decided Wednesday to leave Citroën, precipitating in return the withdrawal of the brand in the chevron of the WRC from 2020. "Following the decision of Sébastien Ogier to leave Citroën Racing to the Result of this season in the World Rally Championship, Citroën has decided to put an end to its sports program in WRC 2020 because of the lack of driver available for the 2020 season, "wrote Citroën on Twitter.

Following @SebOgier's decision to leave Citroën Racing at the end of this 2019 World Rally Championship season, @Citroen decided to put an end to its sports program in @OfficialWRC 2020 due to the lack of a driver peak available for the 2020 season pic.twitter.com/yEsSK4NAE0

- Citroën Racing (@CitroenRacing) November 20, 2019

The French team, present in WRC between 1984 and 1986 then in the years 2000 and 2010 with a return in 2017, will leave a huge void. With eight constructors' titles, nine among the drivers, 102 victories (a record) and 257 podiums, Citroën will have scored the WRC its mark, with the supremacy of Sébastien Loeb from 2004 to 2012.

Citroën deadlocked for a few years

But the good momentum had stalled in recent years, with only six successes in 40 events and an inability to mingle with the constructors' fight (fourth in 2017 and 2018, third in 2019).

In 2019, Citroën had returned Ogier, home driver between 2008 and 2011, with the objective of finding the summits in World. But the 35-year-old Frenchman, crowned six times between 2013 and 2018 with Volkswagen (2013-2016) and then with M-Sport Ford (2017-2018), finally had to settle for a third place in the drivers' standings. won by Ott Tänak on Toyota, with three small successes on the clock.