Last week Andreas Mikkelsen officially joined Hyundai, ousting Kiwi Hayden Paddon from the works team for next month's Rally Spain in the process.
It appeared the Norwegian decided to join the Korean manufacturer over Citroen, who he represented on three occasions this WRC season but that isn't the case according to team boss Yves Matton.
"Andreas was one of the options we considered when working on our driver line-up for 2018, but when it came to making a final decision, we decided not to pursue it."
Citroen continue their pursuit of off-contract world champion Sebastien Ogier, who leads the standings in 2017 with M-Sport Ford.