Citroen Berlingo Worker is robust, handles well, and will do a proper job for Britain’s grafters

IMAGINE Ben Stokes bashing the Aussies for the next nine years. Or Man City winning the Premier League nine years in a row.

Or Ed Sheeran topping the charts until 2028. Actually, all of that could happen.

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But my point is, success like that is super human, if a little suffocating for everyone else.

A bit like Citroen blitzing the World Rally Championship for nine successive seasons from 2004 to 2012.

The French squad didn’t just dominate the WRC. It owned it. Everyone else was fighting for second.

Having a genius like Sébastien Loeb at the wheel obviously helped. He’s the most under-appreciated driver in history, in my book.

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But whatever the surface — snow, ice, gravel, mud, tarmac — Citroen and Loeb came out on top.

Why am I telling you this? Because rally is the most relatable and relevant to the cars we drive today.

All the technical know-how gleaned from the WRC is fed back to Citroen HQ to help develop cars like the next C3. And the next Berlingo van.

Which is why you see me here — at Langley Park Rally School in Essex — trying to break the new Berlingo Worker. I couldn’t.

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The Worker differs from the standard van in that it has more ground-clearance, underbody protection, feet-off-the-pedals Hill Descent mode, and something called Grip Control with Mud and Snow tyres.

Grip Control is a clever piece of kit because it saves on the weight of a 4x4 but will keep you moving on snotty surfaces like a building site.

Essentially, it’s an electric traction-control system that senses if one of the front tyres is slipping and diverts torque to the other.

Other Groupe PSA vehicles — Peugeots and Vauxhalls — use the same tech, which will even claw a front-wheel-drive car UP an indoor ski slope.

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I know that because I did it in a Peugeot 2008 fitted with Grip Control and M/S tyres.

The Worker handles sweetly, too. All the weight is low down, which helps. And it feels strong and comfy, like Dwayne Johnson in joggers.

That said, the middle-seat passenger — the Berlingo has three seats — won’t enjoy banging his kneecaps on the manual gearstick. It needs moving higher.

Now for some numbers. The payload is 994kg. Load volume is 3.9 square metres — that’s two Euro pallets.

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Load height is 1.23 metres and maximum load length using the bulkhead hatch is three metres.  You can fit 1.5-litre pop bottles in the door pockets. Average economy is around 50mpg.

Over and above the standard van, the £18k Worker has a 220v socket in the cargo area, additional securing rings and LED lighting.

Just be careful with options like the 8in touchscreen with Mirror Link (£700) and air-conditioning (£600), as they soon add up.

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Or go for the Berlingo Driver if you deliver things, as that has more tech like TomTom Live satnav and rear camera as standard — but no hike boots.

All in all, the Berlingo is a robust little van that will do a job for Britain’s grafters. That’s not me being polite because I spent a day getting one mucky.

It was recently crowned International Van of the Year. One major award in the bag, eight more to go.

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