WTCC PREVIEW
WorldMags.net
76
CAN THE
NQUISHED
VA
CHAMPION
BOUNCE
BACK?
The World Touring Car Championship kicks off in Argentina this weekend, and Yvan Muller bids
to reclaim his throne from Citroen team-mate Jose Maria Lopez. He talks to STUART CODLING
ALL PICS: DPPI
Y
ou could forgive Yvan Muller
for being, at the very least,
mildly irked. After all,
nobody likes to be beaten
by a newcomer – and certainly
not by one with equal
equipment. Not least when
your own palmares includes
four world championships
with two different
manufacturers, usually
claimed from a position
of almost total on-track dominance.
But that’s the scenario Muller found himself
in last year when Jose Maria Lopez, also driving
one of Citroen’s new C-Elysees, usurped the
number -ne spot while Muller’s relatively modest
total of four race wins left him a distant second
in the title standings. In 2013 six wins and a
consistent run of podiums had been enough for
Muller to secure his fourth world title in relatively
humble circumstances, a Chevrolet privately
entered by former works team RML. Such is the
new era of the World Touring Car Championship,
one of tight competition and marginal gains.
It’s said that Muller’s frustration led to some
76 AUTOSPORT.COM MARCH 5 2015
With fellow
veteran Coronel
rancour behind closed doors at Citroen, recently
alluded to by series promoter Francois Ribeiro,
who plans to spice up the TV package by
promulgating such backstage soap opera.
“We will not hide this any more,” Ribeiro told
AUTOSPORT. “We will bring this to the screen,
to the internet. What do you think people will
remember in 10 years’ time about the 2014
Formula 1 season? That the engine made less
noise? No, they will remember the story between
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg…”
Seated in a Granollers tapas restaurant on the
eve of the series’ media launch, and casually
WorldMags.net
pursuing a juicy-looking prawn around his plate
with a fork, Muller raises an eyebrow, smiles and
gives a Gallic shrug when apprised of his putative
role in Eurosport’s new character-based drama.
“Between two drivers who are fighting for a
championship there is always tension,” he says.
“It’s not particular to me – look at Hamilton and
Rosberg, Loeb and Ogier, Senna and Prost in the
past. There is always tension in these matters.
“He [Ribeiro] wants to tell some stories to
the people, to put things more private in the
story. Is it a good idea or not? [Another
expansive Gallic shrug] I will tell you that
at the end of the year.”
Certainly sharing a garage with a competitive
team-mate is nothing new to Muller, from early
days in the British Touring Car Championship
with the likes of John Cleland, James Thompson
and Jason Plato, to world championship-level
intra-team rivalries with such as Gabriele
Tarquini, Rickard Rydell, Alain Menu and Rob
Huff. He must be accustomed, AUTOSPORT
suggests, to managing a strong character in
the garage next door.
“I had no problems with [John] Bintcliffe,” he
says. “He was not that strong! He was a nice guy.