The Citroën DS3 WRC officially competed in the World Rally Championship from 2011 to 2016, with a semi-official presence in its final season as the French manufacturer prepared its return with the C3 WRC, designed to comply with the new 2017 regulations.
The chassis we are presenting, bearing the number 16, has several interesting historical features. The first of these is that it has been driven by four talented circuit drivers, including two former Formula 1 drivers.
In 2011, the DS3 WRC #16 made its debut in the hands of Kimi Räikkönen. At the time, the former 2007 Formula 1 World Champion decided to shift his sporting career towards rallying and competed in most of that year's World Rally Championship. At the wheel of this chassis, he achieved his best result at this level with a sixth-place finish in the Deutschland Rally.
That same year, Italian driver Rinaldo Capello, a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2003, 2004, and 2008), used the car for his annual year-end recreation at the Monza Rally Show, where he secured a podium finish in third place. He repeated this performance in 2013, once again driving chassis #16.
In 2012, the car was primarily used for preparatory rallies but welcomed several big names behind the wheel, including the current World Rally Champion, Thierry Neuville (Fafe Rally Sprint and Rally Estonia), five-time Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah (Fafe Rally Sprint), and three-time MotoGP World Champion (2010, 2012, and 2015), Jorge Lorenzo, during the Monza Rally Show.
A second Formula 1 driver would further enrich the history of this DS3 WRC, as Robert Kubica used it during his 2013 campaign, at the end of which he secured the WRC2 world title. For this occasion, the car was configured in "RRC" (Regional Rally Car) specification, with a reduced aerodynamic package and a turbo restrictor limiting its performance to match the "S2000" regulations, which were also competing in WRC2 at the time.
In 2014, it was returned to WRC configuration and entrusted to Mads Østberg for the Mountain Rally in Norway, where he finished second in preparation for Rally Sweden. Bryan Bouffier also used it in RRC configuration during the Rally of Latvia, the second round of the European Championship, but had to retire due to an engine issue.
Fully overhauled in 2015, the car reappeared in 2016 under the operation of PH Sport. It was then driven by several private or semi-official drivers, including Stéphane Lefebvre and Khalid Al Qassimi. Confirming its irresistible attraction to circuit drivers, this chassis participated in the Rallye-Circuit at the end of the year, where Yvan Muller, a four-time World Touring Car Champion (WTCC) and ten-time Andros Trophy winner, secured second place.
In 2017, due to a shortage of available new C3 WRCs, Citroën Racing entered this DS3 one last time as an official entry in the Monte Carlo Rally. The late Craig Breen delivered a final top-five finish for the car in the World Rally Championship.
A few months later, the car was acquired by Belgian-Greek driver Jourdan Serderidis, who used it to win the WRC Trophy, a competition reserved for previous-generation WRC cars. Following this success, chassis #16 continued to rack up wins in Belgian regional competitions until its last rally in May 2019.
Preserved by its last owner in the livery that crowned it WRC Trophy champion at the 2017 Rally de Catalunya, this DS3 WRC—equipped with the latest available evolutions—offers a unique opportunity to acquire a car that has been driven by no fewer than five world champions (K. Räikkönen, J. Lorenzo, T. Neuville, N. Al-Attiyah, and Y. Muller) in some of the most iconic motorsport disciplines, including Formula 1, MotoGP, WRC, Rally Raid, and WTCC (touring cars). A pedigree that very few cars can boast!
