Meeke: I Will Build On The Lessons From 2017

Citroen driver Kris Meeke starts this season with a clean slate and zero expectations in the World Rally Championship – and he vows he’s learned the lessons from a difficult 2017 season.

- David Evans

Meeke has ducked the spotlight through the off-season, focusing his efforts and attention on working with the team to ready the C3 WRC for what could be the biggest season of his career.

The Northern Irishman says he’s not interested in headlines this year, though.

“I don’t want to talk about big opportunities,” Meeke told Motorsport News. “We did that last year. Every year in this championship is a big opportunity.

“I feel good coming into the new season and we have a clean slate in front of us. I think we all learned a lot from 2017, but you learn more from the lows than the highs; it’s easy to carry the highs, the wins, with you, but it’s so important to understand where things weren’t right. At times it was difficult to communicate what I was feeling with the car and the work we did didn’t necessarily always translate into a fix for the issues.

“At the same time, PSA was taking about all of its motorsport [departments] under one roof, which caused a bit of upheaval. That’s much more settled now.”

Twelve months ago, after Citroen’s year-long sabbatical to develop the C3 WRC, Meeke and his new car started the Monte Carlo Rally among the favourites to take the title. With the season just a couple of days old, flaws in the new car were being spotted and it was clear the French manufacturer’s return had been somewhat overhyped.