WTCC 2017 preview: this should be the closest season in years

The 2017 World Touring Car Championship kicks off this weekend in Morocco, and though the grid numbers are set to be lowest in the championship’s 13-year history, it could also be one of its most competitive seasons to-date.

From 2010 onwards, it’s been the case that we’ve known who was going to be the champion going in. OK, twice we’d have got it wrong, but we were still “sure” we knew going in. This time, it’s anyone’s guess.

In 2010, when SEAT pulled out and BMW ran an ageing BMW 320is against the fast-developing Chevrolet, which had just signed Yvan Muller from SEAT, very few would have bet against Muller, and those few would have been wrong, as he became the first driver to win the championship even before the championship got to the final race weekend.

In 2011, armed with the knowledge of the previous season, and with BMW now gone as well, it was Muller’s for the taking and he took it, though this time he was run close by team-mate Rob Huff.

In 2012, if you were daring, you’d have said Huff, but the safe money would have been on Muller – but after a season which strained team harmony and team management at Chevrolet, Rob Huff walked away with his first title, narrowly beating Alain Menu and Yvan Muller in that order.

In 2013, Yvan Muller lined up in a privateer Chevrolet – while Honda now entered the championship, as other front-running drivers ended up scattered across the field in ageing SEATs and BMWs…going in, the betting was Muller would surely win the title? And a double-win in the season opener at Monza was a clear sign of the way the season would pan out.

Then the Citroën years came. Knowing the effort that they’d put in to developing the car, and with their 5* driver line-up of Yvan Muller, Sébastien Loeb and José María López, they couldn’t fail. Of course, we all knew that four-time champion Yvan Muller would lead them all to glory. And of course, that would be the second time after Huff’s title year we’d get it wrong.

So, with López teaching his “13-times world champion” team-mates how the game would be in 2014, the last two years have been the López show. We knew what we were in for in both 2015 and 2016, it was just a matter of where López’s competition would come from – from within the team or from outside it?

Now, Citroën as a manufacturer at least, and the top two drivers from last year are gone from the grid, so what happens now?

Well, behind them in 2016 were the two Hondas of Tiago Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz, so this should be easy to work out, right?

If only it were that easy.

Honda made great gains at the start of last year, but even then, they were regularly fighting against the top privateer Citroëns of Mehdi Bennani and Tom Chilton for wins and podiums. Both of those two are back again with the same team and car, and the Citroën is still believed to be the best car on the grid. It’ll take some catching, so have Honda done the work necessary to get ahead of it?

It’s not as though Bennani and Chilton who are likely to be the ones to worry about, especially going by the results of the pre-season test at Monza three weeks’ ago, when Münnich Motorsport and Rob Huff topped every session with the ex-Muller C-Elysée WTCC. The Honda refugee has returned to the privateer team which harboured him after Chevrolet’s departure in 2013, and most guesses right now say the Brit is on target for his second world title, not believing that anyone else could have caught up with Citroën over the winter.

Out to prove them wrong will be Polestar Cyan Racing, who like Honda last year, have significantly changed their approach. Dropping their inclusive Swedish philosophy, they’ve hired new team members and engineers from other front-running teams, as well as two non-Swedish drivers; the fast and feisty Néstor Girolami and Nicky Catsburg. They join their “safe” pair of hands Thed Björk, a tough racer with four STCC titles to his name, and a WTCC race victory in China.

Their biggest key signing though is undoubtedly four-time champion Yvan Muller as development driver and senior advisor – and in that capacity, Muller’s job will be to make sure all three of their drivers succeed. Citroën often spoke of the amount of help that he brought to them when they entered the WTCC, and so with Citroën’s secrets going the way of Volvo via Muller, will that be enough to help them catch and leapfrog Honda as well as his old car this season?

Behind these nine drivers are a number of privateer entries who are looking for strong seasons in 2017. Shock wins will be the name of the game with just 16 cars entered for the season.

Two Chevrolets, both still strong, fast cars will be on the grid. These will be driven by WTCC stalwart Tom Coronel and top Argentinian driver Esteban Guerrieri. John Filippi has ditched his Chevrolet and made the move to a privateer Citroën, and will be hoping to at least break onto the podium a few times in his fourth season in the championship.

Zengõ Motorsport will field two Hondas for Aurélien Panis and Daniel Nagy, with Panis running a 2017-spec car. The team will hope the Frenchman will bring them the same kind of success, and maybe occasional victories that their former star driver Norbert Michelisz did.

A wild card Lada Vesta run by RC Motorsport for Yvan Muller’s nephew could be quickly written off as grid filler, but the young Frenchman showed true pace in testing at Monza, and though the momentum that the former factory team showed last year will likely be halted, there’s certainly a chance of a few surprise results, especially as we wait for the team to confirm a second “pro driver” to help steer the team.

The 2017 World Touring Car Championship should be the closest season in years. The champion will come from one of three different manufacturers – a privately run Citroën, or a works Honda or Volvo – one of six different drivers could easily be champion at the end of the year. After the Monza test, you’d be foolish to bet against Rob Huff and the Citroën, but both Honda and Volvo will have the pressure from above to succeed, as well as the ability to develop throughout the year on their side. Will it be enough? We probably won’t know until December, when the season ends under the lights in Qatar.