At a recent press conference at their newly built headquarters in Versailles, Citroen Sport launched their new four-wheel drive World Rally Car, the Xsara T4, and announced their plans for this years World Rally Programme.

The Xsara essentially is not a new car. It has spent the last year in the French National Championship, where the FIA gave them special dispensation to run the car in unhomologated form as a test and development exercise. The car, in the hands of Frenchman Philippe Bugalski, rounded off the season undefeated after winning seven Tarmac rallies, and one gravel event, winning the French Championship. This was Philippe's third successive French Championship after defeating Simon Jean-Joseph (Subaru Impreza WRC) in 1998 and 1999 while driving the spectacular Xsara F2 front-wheel drive Kit Car. Not forgetting that Bugalski also claimed two outright victories in the World Rally Championship in the F2 car, outraging the regular World Rally teams in Catalunya and Corsica. If the Xsara WRC turns out to be as good as everyone thinks it will be, watch out for it next year.

The car is based on a turbocharged version of their XU7JP4 engine, reported to be putting out 300bhp through all four wheels. The Xsara WRC runs on MacPherson type suspension, and uses 3 electronic differentials, one of only a few teams to do so, along with a 6-speed sequential gearbox, with a steering mounted gearshift system currently under development.

Their programme for 2001 consists of four events, the minimum allowed by the FIA to new teams. 2002 will see a six round attack, while by 2003 they will compete on the whole championship. Their driver line-up consists of three drivers and co-drivers. Philippe Bugalski was named as their main driver with co-driver Jean-Paul Chiaroni. Spaniard Jesus Puras and co-driver Marc Marti are joint second pair with Swede Thomas Radstrom and co-driver Tina Thorner.

Bugalski, widely regarded as one of France's best drivers, has taken on most of the development work in the new Xsara WRC and has accomplished an awful lot in the last three years in the Xsara. He flirted with a works drive in 1992 when he was drafted into Lancia's World Championship team, but after a string of bad results was dropped. He then went back to the French Championship to drove for Renault in the days of the Clio Williams and Maxi, and later the Megane Maxi, his spectacular style always catching the eye. Then he moved to Citroen where he has continued to blossom and has fought his way back into a works team on the verge of a full WRC campaign.

Jesus Puras drove a privateer Citroen ZX Kit-car and then a Xsara Kit-Car in the Spanish Championship before being drafted into the French squad's team for the 1998 Rallye Catalunya, where the car made it's international debut. He led in Catalunya in 2000 initially before retirement on the second day gave Bugalski a lead that he was not to lose.

Thomas Radstrom came to Citroen from Ford. The Xsara had to be developed for gravel if it was to do well in the WRC. The Ford World Rally Team had just ditched Radstrom, so he seemed a good choice of driver to carry out the gravel testing of the T4 Xsara.

Due to the lack of competitive gravel mileage, the Xsara WRC's 2001 championship is mainly tarmac. These rounds include the tarmac rallies in Catalunya, Corsica and San Remo, with their only gravel WRC outing being that of the Acropolis Rally in Greece. Two cars will contest the first WRC round in their programme. Bugalski and Puras will drive these. By Acropolis they hope to have three cars ready for the rest of the year. If not the two cars will be driven by Bugalski and Radstrom, with the three drivers competing on the Tarmac of Corsica and San Remo. Various national events have been chosen for testing purposes and these include the Pirelli Rally in Carlisle on the 28/29th April with any one of the three drivers taking the wheel. Other events will be added to their programme at a later date, but these will depend on surface and amount of input and help from local importers.

With all other manufacturers beginning to gain the services of young drivers, Citroen too have looked to the future. Very promising youngster Sebastien Loeb and his co-driver Daniel Elena will be taking part in the French Championship in a Xsara F2 Kit Car after impressing last year in a Saxo Kit Car.

Since the launch Citroen have now confirmed their intention to let Bugalski and Puras have more gravel experience, so the pair will contest two gravel WRC events in Saxo Kit-Cars, these are to include November's Network Q Rally.

Speaking at the team's launch, Citroen Sport boss Guy Frequlin, a PSA group driver in the 70's and 80's driving a Talbot Sunbeam said that the whole team was looking forward to the season ahead. After being asked whether this would cause a conflict between PSA stablemates Peugeot and themselves, he commented that both teams would have an equal chance of gaining points. The aim is for Citroen to be a new contender, and not to be there to take points away from Peugeot's rivals. The Citroens will not be asked to slow down to allow Peugeot to score more points if needed.

After the decision by SEAT to pull the plug on their WRC programme two-thirds through a three-year plan, the arrival of Citroen in the WRC has been welcomed by everyone. If 2001 is going to be a continuation of 2000, just watch out for Catalunya, the Xsara T4 WRC should be capable of giving the establishment a run for its money.