Yvan Muller: “Next season will be spectacular”

Four-time World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller believes that 2014 will offer an exciting season for the fans, as the WTCC introduces newer, lighter, more aerodynamic and more powerful touring cars.

In an interview with Italian website omnicorse.it, Muller explained his part in bringing Citroën and nine-time World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb in to the WTCC, as well as his relationship with his new team.

“It all started three years ago”, said Muller. “It’s a pretty long story, starting from when I collected my World Championship trophy in 2010 in Monte Carlo, which is when I met Sébastien. He said he wanted to stop rallying and find an interesting series to join with Citroën.

“Loeb was not sure to start with, so I resolved that action is better than words, and organised a test in England in June 2011 with Chevrolet. We had a lot of fun and in the end Seb was convinced the WTCC was a good direction to go.”

With rumours suggesting that Citroën had been convinced by Loeb to enter the series, Muller says the truth more in the middle: “The idea of a new challenge was already on their minds, but Sébastien did give it a push. The WTCC makes sense to Citroën, because they want to enter new markets, and the championship will visit those countries.”

The Frenchman was cautious as to the expectations for the season to come: “The team doesn’t really have any experience in track racing, unlike JAS (Honda) and RML (Chevrolet) who have a long history in touring cars. It doesn’t really matter that the rules are changing, the strategies to succeed in the WTCC are always the same.

“I don’t really know if we’re competitive or not, we will have to wait for the first few races, but the team is capable of learning very, very quickly.”

Muller talked about his relationship with Loeb, and their attitude on track: “We will be opponents on the track and there will be no team orders. I’m sure we will have a lot of fun.”

Speaking of fun, the Frenchman also spoke about the new Super 2000 specification cars, which will run in the newly named TC1 class from next season.

“I think the show will still be there,” said Muller. “With wider cars, contact is risky because it’s easy to damage the suspension. Rubbing will be limited by the fact that damaging the front means losing a lot of downforce, now that we have a splitter. In general, the cars will be more exciting to look at, powerful and fun to drive. I think fans will see a spectacular championship.”