Citroen backs under-fire Meeke amid early season WRC mistakes

Deputy team principal Marek Nawarecki told AUTOSPORT the team would be working with the Northern Irishman in an effort to get to the bottom of the issues which caused his latest mistake in Rally Mexico last week.

"Each driver is doing his best and the team is committed to supporting our drivers to achieve the results," Nawarecki said.

"We cannot say after three rallies that this position is somehow different. We need to find a solution, to find a way to improve things. Maybe the cost would be to have some less speed, or some not so good results.

"We saw he did the best time on the first stage straight away, maybe he wants to be on the top straight away. There are a lot of questions we need to find the answer to, but already we feel we have made a lot of improvements with Kris from last year."

Meeke denied his fastest time and elevation into third overall after SS3 in Mexico was a contributing factor to his fourth-stage mistake.

"[Being fastest] didn't bother me. If I was quickest in the first [gravel] stage or if I was plus 10, minus 10, whatever," he said.

"The feeling was really good in the first one, we had a lot of margin. Look at the time, we were ninth on the road in good conditions and we were half a second up on the guy who was second on the road.

"If we had been driving at the same tempo that Thierry [Neuville] was then I would have been a lot quicker than him. I felt I had a lot of margin."

Meeke eventually finished 16th and sits 11th in the championship, while team-mate Mads Ostberg is fourth after finishing second in Mexico.

In accepting complete responsibility for the mistake, he acknowledged it's an area he needs to work on to maintain the factory ride.

"I know there's an issue somewhere and I have to get to the bottom of it," he said.

"I can't put my finger on it right now, but I know what happened in my own head. If I want to continue then I have to put this right. If it keeps going on then it's not going to work, that's fairly clear.

"I know my job's on the line. If I want to continue, it's got to be right. You're only as good as you're last result and my results haven't been good enough.

"This is completely on my door."