EDITORIAL
>> Citroën is leaving the rallies. The French brand will disengage from the world championship at the end of the year. Officially, it's because his driver Sébastien Ogier is leaving. But it's mostly a question of marketing. According to our editorialist Virginie Phulpin, the rally must be electric, or it will disappear.
"The apology of the driver who is leaving, we do not believe in. Citroën had in any case decided to withdraw from the rallies in 2021. The builder takes advantage of the departure of Sebastien Ogier to precipitate its withdrawal. The objective is to sell cars, and the image of the rallies is a little like that of the casual polluter.We race on country roads by pouring fine particles all the way. Yes, I'm exaggerating a bit, but in 2019, the world rally championship is no longer very glamorous, admit it, more in line with our environmental concerns, and so it has a commercial impact of more and more. Citroën says the manufacturer wants to respond to the challenges of the energy transition by launching a new generation of electric models from 2020.
Already the rally was no longer glamorous, now it may be downright boring. There will be only two manufacturers involved in the world championship next year. Hyundai and Toyota. So what are we doing? Are we allowing discipline to die by not changing anything, or are we trying something else? It's time to wake up and start a real revolution. Switch to hybrid cars, it is planned for 2022. But it should perhaps go further, and turn these rallies into all-electric rallies. There is already an E-Rally Championship, but why not merge the two? This is perhaps how we can create a virtuous circle: to interest the public again, so bring back the builders, and recreate a real sports emulation.
For rallies, you need sports cars, it is not necessarily the image of electric cars
We tried the Formula E, right? Of course, it has not replaced Formula 1, but is not that the future? And then take the example of Porsche. It's ok, as a sports car image. The boss of the brand says it. The future is electric. More than half of this manufacturer's vehicles will be electric or hybrid in 2025. And in September, Porsche introduced its first all-electric sports car. It goes from 0 to 100 kilometers in less than 3 seconds. Obviously, we can manage to make such exciting rallies with electric. Anyway, given the evolution, that's it, or the cars stay in the garage because there will be more rallies. What do we choose? "