2013 season
Red Bull's sponsorship moved to Volkswagen Motorsport as the Citroën team began a new long term partnership with Abu Dhabi Racing. The season started off with a win at the Monte Carlo Rally for Sébastien Loeb, who was only competing in 4 rallies in what was due to be his final WRC season, whilst teammates Hirvonen and Sordo placed 5th and 3rd. In Sweden, Hirvonen and Sordo both crashed out, and Loeb narrowly missed out on another win as he was denied by fellow Frenchman Ogier in the Volkswagen Polo R WRC. Loeb was absent at Rally Guanajuato México, meanwhile Hirvonen finished second with Sordo in fourth.
During the next rally in Portugal, Sordo clipped a tree that ended his challenge whilst battling with Ogier. Hirvonen inherited a successive 2nd-place finish. The 33rd Rally Argentina would see the return of Loeb, who took a commanding final victory. During the first stage of the Acropolis rally, Hirvonen's steering rack failed and came loose resulting in Sordo leading a lone challenge for Citroën, eventually finishing second.
In Sardinia, the team struggled to take the challenge to Volkswagen, Hirvonen's DNF and Sordo's 4th place was a disappointing result. Because of a disappointing first half to the season, the team decided to give Ulsterman Kris Meeke a chance with the third Citroën DS3 WRC in Finland. Sordo finished 5th, and Hirvonen 3rd despite a high speed, 6th gear spin. Meeke was on the pace of the WRC regulars even though he was held up by Qatar World Rally Team's Evgeny Novikov, although his rally ended when he rolled at high speed with only one stage to run. However, his performance left Sordo under pressure to perform to avoid losing his seat with the team.
Hirvonen finished 3rd on tarmac in Germany, his least favourite surface. Sordo was involved in rally long battle with Belgian Thierry Neuville and Finn Jari-Matti Latvala which lasted to the final stage. Sordo held a slim lead, but held on to win his first ever WRC event. It also meant that Citroën were the only team to win ADAC Rallye Deutschland since its addition to the WRC in 2002. Meeke competed in Australia in place of Sordo. Hirvonen had another consistent rally, but dropped from 2nd to 3rd on the final stage due to a puncture. Meeke showed strong pace again only to destroy his car after rolling down a steep bank.
Rallye de France-Alsace was due to be the final rally of Sébastien Loeb's WRC career. The rally would see many different leaders and a rally long battle between Loeb, Sordo, Ogier, Latvala and Neuville. Loeb's rally ended when he rolled the car into trees on the final morning. Sordo came close to another win but missed out to Ogier.
Rally de Catalunya would again see Sordo challenging for victory but the front left suspension broke on his car. Hirvonen managed to finish 3rd on the event. On the final event of the season, Wales Rally GB, recently crowned WRC2 champion and ex-F1 racer Robert Kubica made his WRC car debut with the team. He rolled during the Hafren stage on Friday morning, and subsequently rolled again on the Dyfi stage on Saturday morning. Mikko Hirvonen also had an accident on the Myherin stage which destroyed the car, although he and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen were uninjured. Sordo had a disappointing final rally for the Citroën Team finishing 7th after a time penalty early on in the event.
