Kris Meeke is aiming for the World Rally Championship crown next season.The Dungannon driver, who renewed his contract with Citroen for a further three years, is confident that the 2016 season with a mix of rallying and testing with Citroen will put him in a strong position.
This season will see development on the new Citroen C3 WRC which will be more powerful than the current car, however he will use a DS3 WRC in the first two rounds of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship.
It is not yet clear how many more rounds Meeke will take in this year. However, sources close to the Ulsterman believe that it could be as many as six, likely all to be in Europe.
The mix of testing and still managing to compete on a limited programme is an ideal combination according to Meeke.
“Other teams and drivers this season will be on a full programme while developing cars for the 2017 season.
“You are simply not going to have time to relax faced with a full rally programme and also involved in developing a new car; I think I have the right mix,” said Meeke.
With everything in place for 2017, Meeke believes at last Citroen will be ready to take on the challenge from Volkswagen, which has dominated top level rallying in recent times.
“People tend to forget when Volkswagen arrived on the scene they were fully prepared, Citroen was turning its attention to the FIA World Touring Car Championship and their star driver Sebastien Loeb was out of rallying,” said Meeke.
“Citroen were far from being ready and competitive to take on Volkswagen [but] 2017 will be different and we must not rule out Toyota.”
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