Interview with Eric Néve of Chevrolet Motorsport

While other factory teams reduced their budgets ahead of the 2010 FIA World Touring Car Championship, Chevrolet expanded their program, recruiting former world champion Yvan Muller. How come? TouringCarTimes.com in co-operation with Aleksandar Babic interviewed Chevrolet Europe Motorsport boss Eric Néve on that subject as well as many more.

“I think that the crisis the industry is going through hit GM and Chevrolet earlier, so I had more trouble at the beginning of 2009 to keep this programme alive than I had when preparing for the 2010 season.

When we started working on 2010, the results of Chevrolet (car company) were good, we increased both market share and volume, beside the crisis, so it was actually good timing for us, and the fact that Chevrolet is offering smaller cars came at the right moment.

We were luckily quite successful on the market place, which, in return, helped this programme to stay alive and even be able to increase and improve it.”

TcT: Let’s go back to Marrakech. Huff crashed once, Menu three times. Sounds like a weekend from hell?

“Well, we had two second places, so that was alright; but we also lost a car, the first time that we’ve lost a car since back in 2006. So, that was terrible, not only because of the crashes, but also because of the behavior of the marshals and the recovery trucks that even further damaged the car – as if it was not damaged severely enough.

We saw some horrible things like a car being put on a flatbed with a forklift, thus damaging the flat floor and other parts, that was terrible.”

TcT: The organisational side of the Morocco weekend seem to have received a lot of criticism?

“It was completely incompetent. They were incompetent in the personnel, the equipment… they really will have to improve a lot to keep the high standard the championship deserves.”

TcT: After the Farfus/Menu crash, you were very composed, but also clear about who was to blame for the incident. Do you have any reasons to see things differently now?

“Yes, actually I still do think it’s a pity for both of them, because both of them went away with zero points in the championship, very unfortunate that early in the championship. But Farfus had a broken wheel after the first contact with Menu, which I think was not necessary – but the big crash started as Farfus lost control because of having his front wheel damaged. I still do think that both of them could have avoided it.”

TcT: Chevrolet won both races in Morocco in 2009. What caught you by surprise this year, the faster track or the smaller differences in weight between Chevrolet and its rivals?

“The weight difference, exactly. Because Marrakech was the third event last year and because of a poor start last year we were 60 kilos lighter in Marrakech, which helped us to win both races. This year we were among the heaviest, but we have improved the package, that’s why we still could be competitive. But the big difference was the weight.“

TcT: Could You give us a estimate of the cost of the damage sustained in Marrakech?

“Rebuilding a car is worth more than 100.000 euros, so it’s heavy damage. It also means we had to run at Monza with a test car, something that brings stress to the development and test team as well. Alot of work and big consequences.”

TcT: When will Alan Menu get a new car?

“Not before Portimao at the beginning of July. Until then, he is going to run a test car which is of the same standard.“

TcT: At Monza we saw Leonel Pernía in the fourth Cruze, a car that Vincent Radermecker will drive at Zolder. Will that car be a permanent fixture and will you be looking for drivers among the national stars and champions in the countries WTCC is visiting?

“No, those are two one-offs. It’s not a part of the strategy, it’s more a part of circumstances. I mean, we built a new car for Chevrolet Sweden, which Leonel is driving here and that car is going to Sweden after the weekend at Monza. The deal for Radermecker came through after a deal with Chevrolet Belgium, that’s all.

I mean, if there was a budget available to have national stars driving, we would look into it, but we also have to evaluate if we have a car available for it.”

TcT: During the winter there was lot of talk about Chevrolet being interested in recruiting Fabrizio Giovanardi. What happened there?

“We evaluated different scenarios and we have been in touch with Fabrizio for years, because he’s a professional driver and he’s in contact with key teams, as any professional driver should be. So, we had different scenarios, but the one that materialized is the one where we have the most focus on three cars. Unfortunately we didn’t have any serious opportunities to enter more cars.“

TcT: Chevrolet entered WTCC in 2005. Are you satisfied with what you achieved so far, or do you think that one championship should have been yours by now?

“Yeah, back in 2008 when Rob Huff finished third after having a theoretical chance to become world champion in Macau. 2009 was a little bit tougher, this year we are going to try to be a strong competitor for the title.

It’s a learning curve, I think this is the first season when we are really aiming at the world championship title. We haven’t made it yet, so it is still our goal.”

TcT: Have you ever seriously considered running a diesel powered car?

“We looked into that, but we were assured by the FIA that there would be equality between turbo diesels and petrol cars. As we see, the diesel technology is still evolving, so it was and is very difficult for the FIA to set the rules because the technology is changing.

Had we known that, we might have considered diesel more seriously, but we were told by the FIA that there would be a level playing field.”

TcT: What’s the Chevrolet’s plan for 2011? Will Chevrolet introduce the new turbocharged petrol 1.6 engine?

“Yes, we are working on the so called global engine. We are developing it from scratch, we are building our own block and cylinder head and we want to have engine ready in august and start testing it in September in order to be ready for the start of the season next year.”

TcT: You must be very proud seeing the Lacetti and the Cruze becoming respectable players in various national touring car championships?

“Yes, we see that our performance is improving and then the interest of the privateer teams is also turning away from established references, coming to Chevrolet. So it is a good compliment to the quality of job we are doing – and we also offer the private teams some technical assistance. For example; Bamboo gets all data we can possibly give them and we do not hide any secrets. They are running the Lacetti on a professional level, they get all the Lacetti data we have from the previous years.”

TcT: Are you ready at some point to say to your drivers: “Ok, from now on you support one driver” – whoever it may be?

“From the sporting point of view, I would never do it at the expense of an individual win. So, even at Monza, with Leonel Pernía, we told him that we would not prevent him from winning a race if he is genuinely in a position to do so – which is hard, but I think it’s in the interest of the sport.”

TcT: That comment brings back memories of Anderstorp 2008, when Rickard Rydell “stole” Nicola Larini’s win…

“Yes and that was clearly something Rickard ignored, because not only he took away a genuine victory, he also put a teammate in danger and this cannot be in the interest of a manufacturer.”

TcT: What do you think of the opponents in the WTCC this year? Are you surprised by the BMW’s relative lack of pace and by the strength of semi-private SEAT’s?

“Yes. Well, we knew SEAT would be strong, because the way the regulation is set, we knew they would be a strong contender. We thought BMW would be stronger, more prepared, especially at the beginning of the season. But with the compensation weights coming into play, you see that are going to be strong competitors. And you can clearly see in the championship standings that they are in it.”

This interview was done in co-operation with Aleksandar Babic and b92.net.