LONDON, England (Reuters) -- French stablemates Peugeot and Citroen dealt rallying two major blows with the shock announcement that they were pulling out of the world championship at the end of 2005.

The decision came two days after Ford had given a commitment for the next four years, ending fears that they too could quit after pulling the plug on their Formula One operations.

Peugeot and Citroen, both part of the PSA Group, have won the last five manufacturers' titles, as well as three drivers' championships.

But a PSA statement said they were reviewing new opportunities in motor sports due to tougher conditions in the car market.

"PSA Peugeot Citroen has decided that the marques will no longer take part in the WRC beyond that date (2005)," the statement added.

While Peugeot's continued involvement was in doubt after two difficult years, Citroen had been expected to stay after investing heavily in a new car for 2005.

Without the French teams, the manufacturer-dominated championship runs the risk of looking threadbare even if next year promises a healthy line-up.

So far only Ford is publicly committed to staying beyond 2005, although former world champions Subaru can be expected to join them.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SPORT/11/04/rally.withdrawals.reut/
http://rally.racing-live.com/en/

Let's hope some new teams step in. :help

BMW needs to step up and start a WRC program with the mini

Wow, I thought Citron was doing preety decent too. As long as Subaru stays, WRC rally will live on.

:shifty So that means that we may be left with Ford, Scooby, Mitsu, and Skoda. Right? sigh.

That's odd because Citroen had an awesome C4 rally car shown at the Paris auto show a couple weeks back when I was there.

toyota shall now step in with the Matrix Xr :p

I know it sounds like a death blow for WRC but it is not; We have had very succesful teams pull out before like toyota, audi, lancia, renault... and wrc always kept on going. There will be new manufacturers to take the challenge and some oldies are going to drop in eventually.

The PSA is actually blackmailing FIA with their ultimatum, it is all about rule changes and if PSA gets their way they are going to continue in wrc. It's really windy in top motorsports nowadays isn't it :)

I hope you're right about the series doing well. I love watching that series on Speed. I don't know who is more nuts, the drivers who go like a bat out of hades or the co-drivers/navigators who have no control!