The Swede has been banned from taking in any more events this season, while OMV Kronos now need to find a new driver to partner Manfred Stohl on six or seven of the remaining events this year.
Under the rules all Manufacturer Teams must take in ten events with two cars and thus far OMV Kronos have only done it with four – assuming Sardinia is counted.
News from the Manufacturers' teams:
Citroen Total WRT:
[
Sebastien Loeb, car #1 and
Daniel Sordo, car #2]
Citroen team boss, Guy Frequelin has admitted that they cannot target anything other than victory on the Acropolis given their situation in the manufacturers’ and drivers’ championships.
Sebastien Loeb’s off in Sardinia recently has put the French manufacturer on the back-foot and Seb now trails Marcus Gronholm by seven points in the race for the drivers’ title. The situation in the manufacturers’ however is more depressing for Frequelin and Citroen currently lies 21 points behind Ford.
“Given our positions in both championships, we cannot target anything less than victory in Greece,” Frequelin confirmed. “Our disappointment in Sardinia demonstrated that even the best of them are not immune from trouble, and our rivals too are just as prone to this sort of misadventure. It will be up to us to tackle the Acropolis in such a way that we don't compromise our title chances before going into the second half of the season.”
Greece has rarely been a good event for Citroen though and they have only come out top once in five starts, when Loeb triumphed in 2005.
“Perhaps this year's visit will enable us to improve on that statistic,” Frequelin added. "In recent years, we have no doubt been less well prepared for this type of terrain than for the others. I hope the Citroen C4 WRC will enable us to reverse the trend. Luck can also play a big role in Greece, so let's hope it will be on our side this time.”
