Rally Australia next weekend will not only bring the 2005 World Rally Championship season to a close, it will also mark the final event in WRC competition for the Peugeot World Rally team who withdraw from competition at the end of the season.

Ahead of that, team boss Jean-Pierre Nicolas looks back on the achievements of the team during its time in the WRC...

Q:
How would you sum up Peugeot's formidable run in the World Rally Championship?

Jean-Pierre Nicolas:
In a period of six years, Peugeot has won three Manufacturers' world crowns and finished second in the championship on two other occasions. I believe those figures speak for themselves. The team that has taken over from us at the very top is also a member of the PSA family, but other manufacturers have been chasing after this sort of success for many years. If you add the two Drivers' titles won by Marcus Gronholm, I think the bottom line of our presence in WRC is very positive.

Q:
More particularly, what is your analysis of the 2005 season which is about to come to a close?

JPN:
Till September we have been very competitive for the title. We are proud to have won five world crowns in such a fiercely contested series but you always have to accept the possibility that you will not win all the time. That said, given certain attenuating circumstances, I believe we have put in an excellent season.

Q:
What sort of attenuating circumstances?

JPN:
We had to acquaint ourselves with a whole new range of tyres at the start of the season. After that, we made good progress with Pirelli and reached a very competitive level on the loose. That work was rewarded with wins in Finland and Japan. We improved significantly on asphalt too, although we lacked a little something to be able to challenge for first place. Our choice Pirelli was in fact coherent with a development programme based on a period of three years. But we then had to curtail our presence in the sport which means we didn't have time in the end to benefit fully from our choice.

Q:
Does the same apply to the bold technical choices that were made relating to the 307 WRC?

JPN:
The intention of the FIA regulations is to ensure that everyone is on a level playing field. It is therefore perfectly logical that the other manufacturers succeeded in bridging the technological gap we pulled out at the time of the launch of the 206 WRC. We therefore had to be particularly inventive if we wanted to pull out the same sort of lead with the 307 WRC. That led to us looking of sophisticated solutions like our innovative gearbox, once again, we clearly didn't have the necessary time to develop it.