Eric Neve on Chevrolet’s new found form in 2010

We caught up with Chevrolet Motorsport Manager Eric Neve at Oschersleben to talk about the future of WTCC, and the manufacturers change in fortunes this season, as they presently lead the drivers and manufactuers championships in the WTCC.

TcT: Chevrolet is currently leading the World, and British Touring Car Championships at the moment, you must be pretty happy with that performance?

“You bet. We worked very hard throughout the years to get to this level, itís is quite rewarding see the efforts that we put into this program paying off. We donít know how the championship is going to finish, that’s part of the game but it’s good to be in such a competitive position”

TcT: In recent years, Chevrolet has been the team on the outside, always there and in the championship hunt, but looking in on SEAT and BMW, this year you no longer the hunter, you are the hunted – does it feel different be in that position?

“It does because we always felt that we had neither of the advantages of our competitors. We donít have a turbocharger, and we donít have rear wheel drive – we had to fight really hard to compensate those two points which we didn’t have.”

“It feels different because we know weíre competitive but we have no margin whatsoever – we don’t have a turbo boost which we can turn on, or anything we can do to improve our starting position, so we are there, but with no margin.”

TcT: Youíve got a new driver set-up this year, with Rob, Alain and Larini having done all the development with Chevrolet over the last few years, but youíve got a new driver in the family this year with Yvan. Howís that new driver mix working?

“What he has brought with him is some fresh air to the team because we had Nicola, Alain and Rob and their respective engineers working together for the last five years and I felt we could run the danger of hitting some erosion in the motivation and the way they work – and it was time to bring in a new key element into that team – not only is he quick also he’s a very experienced driver and certainly a driver our engineers would listen to.”

“I’m pretty sure had we kept the same structure as we had before we would have lost that little extra motivation for the whole team to approach things; like when Yvan says ‘can we try lower tyre pressure’ for example, it could have well been that if one of the drivers we had before had said that the response would be we’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work – whereas if Mr Muller says to try it, we try again and for sure the car is different so with worth trying again”

TcT: There was a possibility during the off season that we to see an expanded line-up at Chevrolet this year, with Giovanardi believed to be in the frame for a fourth car ñ over the last few years SEAT and BMW have had more cars than anybody else, but this year thatís changed, so are the three cars enough?

“The way the manufacturers championship is set you score the points with the first two cars, so the more cars you have the more jokers you have- so for me as a manager it is my task to ask for more cars but there is only so much you can do.”

“The more cars we would have, the stronger we would be in the manufacturers championship save that you can manage the whole thing of course – because if you end up having an internal mess is where the system hit its limit but SEAT have proven that it works”

“Ideally you should have a tier A and tier B, where you would have the first tier fighting for pole position for race one, and the other team fighting for P8 for race two. That’s the way SEAT did it.”

TcT: Chevrolet’s sticking with the WTCC, going with a 1.6 turbo engine as suggested by the new regulations. How’s that engine programme going, it had it’s first test this week didn’t it?

“Yes, on the bench. And itís still in one piece.”

It’s a global racing engine, so you have no brand on it, but it’s paid for by Chevrolet Europe for the world Touring car programme.

“We have requests from non-Chevrolet people asking about the engine but weíll see. If we can make business out of it, for sure weíll consider it, but for the moment the engine has been paid for, for this programme (WTCC).”

TcT: The championship next year looks potentially a little light, new manufacturers are mooted for 2012, but next year SEAT could well be an independent entry again, and BMW could be scaling back. How important is it for Chevrolet to have competition in a championship such as this?

“We need competition, and we’ll have competition definitely next year. I know for a fact SEAT is working on a 1.6 turbo petrol, and my guess is that they will tap on the Skoda rally programme; and BMW need to have a leading programme to sell on to customers.”

TcT: It’s been speculated that BMW might pull back and just become an engine supplier to independent outfits like Proteam however

“That would be very short minded and Iím sure thatís not the case. They definitely need somebody to showcase what their new kit to do, to get the Proteamís and the such likes to buy into it.”

This is Chevrolet’s sixth season in the WTCC, joining in the championships inaugural season in 2005. With the second year with the new Chevrolet Cruze LT, they lead the drivers championship with Yvan Muller after Oschersleben by 11 points over BMW’s Andy Priaulx, with drivers Robert Huff and Alain Menu 4th and 5th – and lead the constructors championship by 55 points from BMW. The team is also enjoying success in their first official year in the British Touring Car Championship currently with Jason Plato leading the drivers championship with two race weekends remaining.