Scapegoating Meeke won't help Citroen's crisis

Citroen's Rally Italy press release says it's already focusing on Poland. Just as well really. Last week's seventh round of the season offered little to shout about.

Sardinia was pretty diabolical. Portugal wasn't much better. Argentina was forgettable. Corsica turned into a catastrophe. Mexico was great. Sweden was a shocker and Monte Carlo... well, it wasn't the dream return one of world rallying's true powerhouses had hoped for.

And who's to blame? Kris Meeke.

Anybody else? Er... let me see what it says here.

Well, Craig Breen showed a lack of experience in driving over the rock that broke his gearbox casing. Seems a bit harsh.

Andreas Mikkelsen? Does he get a mention? Anything about his conservative speed in Sardinia? Anything about finishing eighth, more than eight minutes off the pace?

Indeed he does get a mention.

"Andreas' approach has been constructive and positive."

Excellent.

So, with the guilty party out of the picture for the next round in Poland, what can we expect from Citroen's line-up of Mikkelsen, Breen and Stephane Lefebvre?

Being brutally honest - nothing better than what the team achieved in Italy last week.

In benching Meeke, Citroen might be of the opinion that it'll go through fewer panels (recent history would add weight to such thinking), but it has also ruined any hopes it might have had of winning, leading or potentially even setting fastest stage times.

Who's led for the most stages in this year's world championship? Anybody knows that, it's Thierry Neuville on 29. Who's second? Meeke on 25.

Stop shouting. Yes you, the one at the back, the one who has already labelled this as nothing more than a jingoistic rant.

Admittedly, the above might be a touch slanted with a degree of irreverence about it, but stick with it and we'll dig deeper into the reasons why Meeke's been dropped in favour of Mikkelsen.

Probably a good idea to remind ourselves of Meeke's season so far.

Monte Carlo Rally - road accident

Ran as high as second before crashing on SS4. Returned for day two under Rally2, suffered mechanical problems and then got taken out on the road section to Monaco by a non-competing car.

Rally Sweden - 12th

Third early on, the handling of the Citroen changed on the second day leaving the car "undriveable". Went off the road for a while on the second run at Vargasen and then took it steady to the finish.

Rally Mexico - 1st

An incredible turnaround for crew, car and Citroen. Benefited from running further back on the road on day one, but after that he looked safe and secure on a rally he's never gone well one before. Survived minor last stage hiccup (involving a trip through a spectator car park).

Tour of Corsica - engine problem

Fastest or second fastest on every stage on day one, he moved into a solid lead and then controlled it for the first half of day two. A problem with an oil seal in the engine prevented what would likely have been back-to-back wins.

Rally Argentina - crashed

Rolled after the car reacted badly to the same Santa Rosa bump that broke team-mate Breen's gearbox as well. Returned and crashed spectacularly after making a mistake on Los Gigantes.

Rally of Portugal - 18th

Led for a stage on an incredibly competitive opening day before he slid wide on a right-hander and broke the suspension on the Ponte de Lima stage. He returned for the weekend and brought the car to the finish.

Rally Italy - accident damage

Led for two of the first four stages then slid wide on a right hander on stage five. The C3 hit the bank and rolled. The car was retired because of damage to the rollcage on the right-hand side.

The number of crashes for Meeke this year has been unacceptable. Nobody disputes that.

What is up for question is the reason for each of these accidents. And this is where I take exception to Citroen's communication of Sunday evening.

I sat down with team principal Yves Matton on Saturday to talk through the Meeke situation. Following that discussion, it came as no surprise to see the news of Meeke's Polish no-show, but Matton had been far more conciliatory in person.

On Saturday he said: "I am not angry, it's more the philosophy to work at this together. We are in the same boat and we work for the same brand.

"What's most important is the image of the brand and the return on investment we can give to the brand because we are employed by Citroen and we need to give back the value to the brand."

By Sunday 'working together' had become hoofing Meeke out to make way for Mikkelsen under the guise of "recharging his batteries and releasing some of the pressure".

Personally, I can't think of a way to heap more pressure on a driver.

But this is nothing new for Citroen. Wind back to Cyprus 2005. Francois Duval was given the same treatment, except he was down for a two-match suspension. Worked a treat for Duval, didn't it... He never did a full-season as a factory WRC driver again.

I've spent much of the season trying to understand what's going on at Citroen.

We all know the car's handicapped by suspension that can trace its roots back to Duval's time and the return of an active centre differential hasn't provided the C3 with the springboard to success many thought it would.

But, for me, this goes deeper than that. Those problems both fall under a much wider and more miserable malaise: budget cuts, courtesy of the amalgamation of PSA's motorsport activities.

Colleagues from the Formula E paddocks and cross-country rallying deserts around the world have admitted as much. Where once the group's Paris headquarters was fiercely divided between red and blue - Citroen and Peugeot - there's now one big happy family.

Except the family's getting smaller, courtesy of reported redundancies, and there's less and less happiness about the place - with insiders talking of an atmosphere of fear for the future. Incredible to think that, little more than a decade ago, Peugeot and Citroen ruled the WRC.

What's really at the heart of this issue is the decline of PSA's mainstream product. Not selling enough metal has had a serious and deeply detrimental and - let's be honest, understandable - effect on the motorsport budget.

The return of Les Rouges is in danger of becoming a financially hamstrung French farce.

Citroen's communication is gracious enough to accept all is not rosey in its own garden, but I'm not sure fans truly understand the full extent of the issues the drivers face with the C3 WRC.

How many times this year have we heard the drivers talk of strange handling; of not knowing what the car would be doing? It's been unpredictable in the extreme.

In Sweden, getting through a handful of corners in one piece was an achievement. In Corsica, it was the fastest and finest rally car ever made.

On the face of it, putting Mikkelsen in the car in Italy has cost Meeke his seat in Poland. In reality, it could be the best thing for the Northern Irishman.

Mikkelsen is a world-class driver who will be world champion in the next few years, of that there's no doubt. What he's not is eight minutes off the pace.

We all thought Mikkelsen would land in the C3 WRC, take advantage of his road position and hold a top three place on Friday night.

Being eight minutes down two days later with the only mechanical failure being a broken front diff on Saturday afternoon was not part of the plan.

What happened was that Mikkelsen simply couldn't get comfortable with the car; it was a million miles away from his driving style and nothing could be done about that.

And now he'll have a day's test to dial himself into Poland before Matton asks him to take aim and fire it down the season's scariest stages at 130mph.

On the subject of testing, it's worth noting the lack of diversity in Citroen's test plan last season.

Look, for example, at its Monte Carlo preparations: test one was in... Sanremo.

And throughout last year, there were concerns - including some from the man himself - about one driver (Meeke) playing such a big part in the car's development. It can come as no surprise that the rear of the C3 plays such a big part in the way it drives. That's how he likes it.

Meeke-bashing has become fashionable, depressingly so among British and Irish fans. I find it laughable that these 'supporters' so quick to laud his Mexican win (even with the final-stage hiccup) are ready to hang him now without anything approaching a full understanding of the bigger picture. Or the kind of driver he is.

Meeke's an all-or-nothing kind of chap. You'll well remember him winning the fastest ever round of the World Rally Championship in Finland last year.

A drive like the one Mikkelsen turned in in Italy (which Citroen rightly labelled as 'constructive and positive') is pretty much beyond Meeke.

What happened when Meeke got his big chance with Citroen? Three stages into the 2013 Rally Finland he was just 1.7s off Sebastien Ogier's scratch time through the Koukunmaa test. A couple of days later he crashed out of fifth place. Next event: Australia, first time there and he wins the qualifying stage. Then crashes. Twice.

Matton gives him the nod for 2014 and what happens? Podium on the Monte and four more podiums for the rest of the season. Next year, wins for the first time. Three-year contract in the pocket at the end of 2015 and two wins from seven starts follow in '16.

What folk don't get is the knife-edge the C3 is putting its drivers on this year.

Talk to any of them off the record and the story's the same. Now, I don't expect Citroen to do its dirty washing in public and turn its Italy release into a warts-and-all transcript of a debrief, but it would be nice if it hadn't chucked one of its own under the bus.

The depth of this current crisis can't be underestimated. A measure of it is reflected in the fact that Meeke hasn't answered one of my 11 calls at the time of writing.

Citroen got it wrong when it didn't take Mikkelsen at the start of the season. But the decision to leave him in the car in place of the team's lead driver - while keeping two junior drivers in place - is stranger still.

By his own admission, Matton couldn't consider benching Breen. He's the squad's top scorer.

But, of the other two, is Meeke or Lefebvre more likely to deliver the required top five in Mikolajkii?

I'd take my chances with Meeke. But then you knew that anyway.