Christjohannes Schreiber delighted with success following Rikli move

Swiss driver Christjohannes Schreiber is enjoying a strong start to the 2017 ETCC season after a tough first year in 2016, with the Honda driver now leading the standings by 16 points over Krenek’s Petr Fulín, having already scored more points in two races than he had in the whole of 2016.

Schreiber, who switched from Krenek and its SEAT León TCR to the Rikli Motorsport team with their Honda Civic TCN2 for this season, said things have worked out better than he expected.

“I entered this season with no expectations at all,” said Schreiber to TouringCarTimes. “I had a difficult year last year and I had to change something, and obviously, it was a good decision.

“The big part is the team. I’m so happy with these guys, they make it so easy for a driver to feel good and be part of the team. Everyone’s working with the same passion, and it’s easy to give your best.”

Former team-mate Petr Fulín was critical of the team’s starts in the first two events, with the Civic TCN2 showing great pace at the beginning of the race, which the Czech put down to the team being able to run a more developed starting system, but Schreiber said most of it was due to testing.

“We’ve invested a lot in the starts,” said Schreiber. “We’ve tested and tried stuff, it’s the most crucial part of every race and at the moment it’s working fine.