What's gone wrong in Citroen's WRC camp?

Almost by the minute, Citroen Racing's Facebook page became more painful for Mikko Hirvonen to read.

News of the Finn's departure from Rally Italy led Citroen's PR department to invite its fans to post social-media messages to cheer up their man. It didn't quite go to plan.

Paraphrasing, the overriding feeling was that Hirvonen wasn't up to the job, has already cost Citroen the title and should, perhaps, step aside for Marcus Gronholm. The definite feeling is that Hirvonen's no Loeb.

That he's not. Hirvonen's struggling like hell right now. And he's getting nowhere.

The frustration surrounding the Finn is huge from those in a team who have known nothing but winning. But, bizarrely, and potentially more worryingly, Hirvonen himself appears pretty calm about what's going on.

I like Mikko. I've always got on well with him and, on a personal level, he's one of the best guys in the world championship. Which is why it hurts just that little bit more when you see him missing the moment.

Hirvonen crashed trying to fend off the inexperienced Neuville, who Citroen let go last year... © XPB

Last Saturday's Sardinian shunt was a stupid one. He outbraked himself, losing second place and even more credibility in a nanosecond. That was bad. What was worse was the fact that he was scrapping with Thierry Neuville - a comparative novice on the roads around Olbia - while Sebastien Ogier danced his way, 10, 20, 30 seconds and finally a full minute up the road.

And that's not the first time that's happened this year. Finishing second to a Sebastien has been the beginning and middle of Hirvonen's career. It seems it could now mark the end as well.

What happened to the fight?

In 2009, Hirvonen came within a point of winning the world title. And, in that year, Mikko drove like a world champion - especially in Finland. Third after a dash around Killeri, he hit the front in Jukojarvi and stayed there. The Saturday-morning loop of Leustu, Himos and Surkee was the stuff of legend - and legends are big in that part of the world.

Loeb was three seconds behind at the start of the day, but Hirvonen pushed harder and harder and harder and his Focus flew further and further and further.

And Loeb folded.

The number of drivers who can rightly say they outdrove Loeb on a round of the world championship can be counted on one hand. But that first day of August in 2009 was special for the then-Ford man.

Hirvonen was so nearly on top of the world in 2009 © LAT

And, having done Loeb over at home, he then got under his skin elsewhere and came within a single point of turning nine to eight for the world's most successful rally driver. And, throughout, that season, Hirvonen had a real fire burning. He wanted it and he wanted it bad.

Has the fire gone out?

In what was supposed to be his best chance yet of a world title, Hirvonen the steely-nerved scrapper's gone AWOL. This was Hirvonen's season to show he has a world title in him and that he's not just the world's best number-two rally driver.

Talk to Hirvonen about the current situation and he's cool. He gets the gravity, but wraps it in comedy. He's not being waggish or flippant, he just doesn't appear to be on the same wavelength this season.

Or, are we asking too much of Mikko. Is he the world's best number two? There's a very strong case for that. Just as Finland 2009 showed his massive speed, bravery and ability behind the wheel, that season as a whole showed his ability to accumulate points, the stock-in-trade of the team-mate to the number one. In 2009, he finished 11 of the 12 rounds on the podium. That number would have been 12 from 12 had his Ford's engine not gone pop in Argentina.

The number-two theory could be a pointer to his troubled 2013. And it has been troubled, right from the Monte, where he was all-at-sea in his confidence-stripped state, to Sweden where he went off the road, killing one of his best chances of the year. A couple of seconds in Mexico and Portugal have brought points, but his inability to engage with Ogier has cost him dearly.

Hirvonen keeps finishing below Sebastiens © LAT

It's only fair, however, to mention the steering problem that robbed him of more points in Greece and the puncture and resultant electrical issue that confined him to sixth in South America.

Is he trying too hard? With Loeb gone, the simple assumption was that the man who had finished second to him for so long would step up. That was before Sebastien Ogier and Volkswagen's rocketship arrived. What had looked, pre-season, like a pretty straightforward clamber up Snowdon on a snowy Saturday has become a real mountain climb. And having stared up at Everest year on year, Hirvonen now finds himself mid-point on K2. And the chances of reaching the top are not looking too clever.

Hirvonen's hopes of taking the title this year are, realistically, finished. The worry for Citroen is that the manufacturers' championship looks to be heading south as well.

It doesn't help that 68 of Citroen's 174 points have come from Loeb, who has only contested three rallies so far this season. For the record, Hirvonen has outscored Sordo by 61 to 59. Adding their tallies together would still leave them 34 short of series leader Ogier.

If Hirvonen's lost his spark, you now begin to wonder if Sordo ever truly had one. This year more than ever, the Spaniard has been lost. Rarely at home on the loose, he bordered on the embarrassing in Mexico and put up little if any defence in Sardinia. At service on Saturday afternoon, I tried to encourage him, pointing out that Jari-Matti Latvala was only 20 seconds ahead.

Sordo was muted in Italy © XPB

Surely it was worth a go?

I might as well have talked to the seagulls. Sordo looked at me as though I was.

He ended the event a minute and half behind.

Woeful.

Sordo is clearly holding out for Germany and Spain and his chance to win a round of the world championship. In the meantime, Citroen is losing its championship and it's powerless to stop the slide.

Citroen's side of the service park was not a happy place last week. And it's testament to the size of the problem that Yves Matton is talking to Loeb to ask him to consider doing more than just France in the second half of the year.

He doesn't hold out much hope. Of a longer Loeb return, that is. Although, privately, you could probably say the same about the championship.

The real frustration here is that drivers like Kris Meeke and P-G Andersson are desperate beyond desperate for what others are taking for granted.

I'm baffled at the explanation for Sordo; he always struggles in low-grip, narrow stages. And it'll be better when the asphalt arrives. I thought the days of a specialist driver had gone. It appears I'm wrong.

Citroen needs to think long and hard about next season. A driver like Meeke would certainly bring a spark that's been sorely missed in Versailles at times this season.