[4] The car made its début at the 2018 Tour de Corse where it was driven by the French crews of Stéphane Lefebvre and Gabin Moreau, and Yoann Bonato and Benjamin Boulloud.

The C3 would be designed to improve on the previous offerings of Groupe PSA in the R5 discipline, the Peugeot 208 T16 and the Citroën DS3 R5, both of which proved problematic and unpopular with R5 customers.

Throughout summer 2017, Citroën Racing Technologies employed factory Citroën drivers Stéphane Lefebvre and Craig Breen as part of the development team for the C3, along with Yoann Bonato, who was hired for the project.

[6] The first working model was completed in September of 2017, and a month later the test C3 made its public debut at the Rallye du Var, with Bonato driving a few stages as a non-competitive entrant to the rally.

Including the original test cars, a total of 26 C3 R5s had been constructed by 1 May 2019, with 22 having been sold to independent teams.