It has been announced that Colin McRae will start the 2003 WRC season in a 2002-spec Citroen Xsara. The French team will provide the 1995 world champion with an up-dated version of this season's car before the 2003 version enters competition by round four of next year's championship. The move is clearly a gamble and the question is whether it will pay off.
Citroen may be following the lead of the Ferrari F1 team by going for reliability at the beginning of the season. This is logical for a number of reasons.
Primarily, the Xsara has proven to be a quick car this season, capable of mixing it with the all-conquering 206's on many occasions. It should therefore have enough speed to keep in check at the beginning of next season.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, all Peugeot's rivals can be expected to push the envelope of reliability in the search for enhanced performance. Peugeot's dominance this season has probably set alarm bells ringing in the various rival WRC teams. Without a significant jump in performance, many teams could be facing another demoralising season watching the 206's take minutes, not seconds, off their best drivers. The importance of this to Citroen may be that as team's push for performance gains, reliability will inevitably be compromised and Citroen may pick up some valuable points early next year by putting in reliable performances with a relatively fast car.
On balance, Citroen and McRae may be able to pick up valuable points early in the 2003 season. For the Scotsman this would be an advantage considering that the early season reliability of his Focus WRC in the past has been verging on woeful. With a faster Xsara on the way the Flying Scotsman could have a good foundation on which to build a serious 2003 challenge by mid-season.
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