Citroen: Junior team can win too

Last year the PH Sport-run operation took a handful of top five finishes with Urmo Aava and Conrad Rautenbach. The latter stays on for a second full season with the squad, now officially rebranded as the Citroen Junior Team, and is joined for next weekend's Rally Ireland by Junior series champion Sebastien Ogier and former works Subaru driver Chris Atkinson.

"The creation of the Citroen Junior Team will enable us to bring on other talented drivers, beginning with Sebastien Ogier," said Quesnel. "I hope this team will be a valuable ally for the Citroen Total World Rally Team.

"It will be interesting to see a driver like Chris Atkinson in a C4 WRC. We know the quality of the cars we supply to our customers and I am convinced they will soon emerge as potential winners."

Ogier and Atkinson are currently only confirmed for limited World Rally Championship programmes, but Junior Team manager Benoit Nogier said both are likely to stay on for longer.

"Sebastien Ogier will take part in the first six rallies, but he has a real opportunity to bulk out his programme as the season goes on," Nogier said.

"As for Chris Atkinson, he will drive one of our Citroen C4 WRCs in Ireland. As we already made clear when we signed the deal there are no plans currently in place beyond then, even though there's a strong will to do so from both sides."

Although Quesnel thinks the Junior drivers will be capable of fighting for wins, Nogier said the priority for his team will be to develop talent and secure points for Citroen.

"We are very aware that we have different objectives to the factory team," he said. "The Citroen Junior Team is a programme with which to develop drivers. Thanks to this structure, we hope to find some future drivers for Citroen.

"They will all certainly want to demonstrate their outright speed, but the team's objective is for them to acquire as much World Rally Championship experience as possible and get to the finish of each event. That's our priority."

In addition to Rautenbach, Atkinson and Ogier, Russian teenager Evgeny Novikov will also drive for Citroen Junior in at least eight rallies.