No No. 1 driver for Citroen in 2013

Citroen Racing boss Yves Matton says that Citroen won't run a definite No. 1 driver next season as Dani Sordo rejoins the team alongside Mikko Hirvonen.

The record-breaking French team have been seen to favour 9-times World Champion Sebastian Loeb as their No. 1 driver, but with his full-time retirement, Matton believes it will be better for both drivers to fight each other to help Citroen claim a sixth Manufacturers World Title.

“My idea is more we have two drivers and the two drivers have to do their job to bring as much points on each event to have the title at the end of the season. Seb [Loeb] will not be there [full time] next year but Mikko showed he can fight for the first places and I am very optimistic what Mikko will show next year and what he will do for us.” said Matton.

Matton's choice in re-signing Sordo appeared to boil down to the fact that he knew the car and the team, having spent the vast majority of his full-time WRC career there. Another factor in this decision is Citroen's need to expand into the Spanish road car market

“It’s important that he knows the team and the car; the type of team we are and how we work on the set-up of the car. Spain is also an important market for the [Citroen] brand and it’s important for us not to have two drivers from the same part of Europe - with Spain and Finland we are very wide on the European market.” he added.

However it hasn't been announced for how long Sordo will be under contract with Citroen, nor has it been announced how many events he will do in 2013. With Sebastian Loeb only planning on doing two to five events next year, one could expect Sordo to compete on any events Loeb decides not do enter.