Thed Björk expects to fight for top positions straight away

Thed Björk joined the ranks of Yvan Muller Racing after a winter spent completely out of racing. The Swede just had his first proper test in the Hyundai i30 N TCR in Barcelona.

“This winter I was completely off racing, this was my first test day,” said the world champion to TouringCarTimes. “We didn’t look for a lap time, we were just preparing for Marrakech. It feels good, so I look forward to Morocco.”

The Swede has high expectations going into Marrakech.

“We prepared everything on the car, and I expect to be fighting somewhere in the top, but we have new cars and new rules, so it’s too hard to predict. As a race driver I always want to be fastest, so I will try to do so and see where I end up.”

Comparing the current TCR cars to the previous TC1 generation of world touring cars, Björk believes the cars are fun to drive and will allow close racing.

“The TC1 cars were very advanced compared to these cars, but TCRs are fun to drive. The situation for me is completely different (compared to last year), because we are now a customer team at Yvan Muller Racing, and we can’t have input in building the cars, so for me it’s like going back to 10 years ago.”

“The fun is going to be that it will be close racing. I don’t think we will have a huge disadvantage, they have much more knowledge and we just scratched the surface of the setup and the preparations. I think Norbi (Michelisz) was really fast and the man to beat last year, so I know it will be difficult, but we will do everything we can to catch up as quickly as possible.”