Kronos no longer 'blue'.

Kronos Racing will drop the blue livery on their Xsara WRC cars this weekend in Australia and revert to Citroen's traditional colours.

Kronos concluded a deal with Altadis group tobacco brand, Gauloises at the start of this season, however, the agreement was not for the entire championship.

Indeed it covered only 13 of the 16 events and with Telstra Rally Australia being the 14th round in the 2006 FIA World Rally Championship, the Belgian-based squad will run in red this weekend and in all likelihood will remain 'red' in New Zealand and at the season ending, Wales Rally GB.

"We concluded at the start of the season an agreement with Citroen Sport to rent some Xsara WRC for the sixteen rounds of the championship. This way we could enter the series under the 'Manufacturers 1' banner. Our partnership with Gauloises only concerned thirteen events though," explained Kronos co-founder, Jean-Pierre Mondron. "It came to an end in Turkey with both parties very satisfied."

As for the future, Mondron hasn't ruled out the possibility though that they might find a new backer: "From now until the end of the season, it is not excluded that a new partner could join in," he confirmed. "In the meantime, given the technical support that Citroen has supplied us with, we have estimated that it was quite fair play to reward them for their trust by giving putting the Xsara back in its original colours [for Australia]."