Citro\u00ebn has announced that Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen will join the World Rally Championship driving a Citro\u00ebn for the junior team. The 2007 Formula 1 world champion will have former Junior WRC champion S\u00e9bastien Ogier as his teammate within the Red Bull Citro\u00ebn team. He had a rather impressive season in WRC last year.<\/p>\n
R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen is not a novice in the discipline as he settled behind the wheel of an Abarth S2000 for the WRC round in Finland earlier this year. He has earned the respect of his peers for the speed with which he adapted to the conditions. He has hinted for many years that he was keen to pursue a career in rallying after F1. When he announced last month that he would take a sabbatical following the breakdown of talks with McLaren, the WRC was considered his most likely destination.<\/p>\n
\u00ab I’ve always wanted to do rallies, particularly as part of the World Rally Championship at some point in my career, \u00bb said R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen. \u00ab Thanks to Red Bull for giving me the opportunity to drive the best car in the series with the Citro\u00ebn C4. It’s a new challenge, but it’s very exciting. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Rumors suggest that R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen could return to F1 with Red Bull after his first season in WRC, especially since his contract with Citro\u00ebn only covers 2010: “For now, we have a one-year contract, and we will see later what the future holds,” the Finn said. “I’m really looking forward to testing the car and starting the first rally.”<\/p>\n
The boss of the Citro\u00ebn team, Olivier Quesnel, stated that he was delighted by Red Bull’s increased involvement, and that the team had a very strong driver line-up with the duo of R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen – Ogier alongside S\u00e9bastien Loeb and Dani Sordo.<\/p>\n
\u00ab The commitment and energy of Red Bull are a perfect match in the pursuit of victory for Citro\u00ebn, \u00bb stated Quesnel. \u00ab We will continue to rely on S\u00e9bastien and Dani to defend our world titles in 2010, and we will also extend our partnership with S\u00e9bastien Ogier, who has shown exceptional potential this year. \u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab It is with immense joy that we welcome Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen into our ranks. We are very proud that he has chosen Citro\u00ebn. In addition to the confirmation of the four drivers, we hope to be able to announce other programs in the coming weeks. \u00bb<\/p>\n
R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen and Ogier will compete in 12 rounds of the WRC championship out of the 13 in the 2010 season, with only the New Zealand event not on their schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Citro\u00ebn has announced that Kimi R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen will join the World Rally Championship driving a Citro\u00ebn for the junior team. The 2007 Formula 1 world champion will have former Junior WRC champion S\u00e9bastien Ogier as his teammate within the Red Bull Citro\u00ebn team. He had a rather impressive season in WRC last year. R\u00e4ikk\u00f6nen is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1749],"tags":[777],"class_list":["post-22979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","category-news","tag-raikkonen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n