Interview: Rob Huff on his success in the WTCC

Chevrolet World Touring Car driver Rob Huff has come on strong in the last few seasons, working his way to being the top scoring Chevrolet driver in 2008 & 2009, and even remaining in contention for the title up until the last two races in 2008.

TouringCarTimes spoke to Rob recently about his touring car career, his season and ambitions.

“I am one of the luckiest drivers because I’ve had the chance to learn a lot since I started my career in BTCC,” said Rob.

“I’ve always had very strong team-mates. My first team-mate was Jason Plato, then I’ve worked with Nicola Larini and Alain Menu and now I am working with and Yvan Muller – one of the best touring car drivers in the world. It is more an advantage then a disadvantage that I’ve had strong team-mates – they helped me a lot with the set-up, how to work with the team members and to create my own ideas and solutions.”

TcT: Why is Yvan leading the championship and not you?

“That’s a good question. The pace is very similar between the three of us. The only difference is that Alain and me had two or three bad race weekends in the beginning where Yvan was able to score points.”

“My bad luck was to have a puncture at Monza and Portimao and then I was also disqualified in race two at Portimao. We are so close together that you have to score points at every race weekend.”

TcT: The team have made a big step with the Cruze during the Winter. What has changed?

“We understand the car much better now. We’ve found a good base set-up that we can use at every race track that has made us strong at every race weekend so far. There are so many things you can change like tyre pressure, differential, suspension etc. and often you have more than 20 possibilities with only one part of the car.”

“Last year with the Cruze we had a very bad winter testing programme because of very wet conditions. This made us very strong in the wet last year, but when it was dry we didn’t have the speed at the beginning of the season.”

“During a race weekend it’s very hard to develop the car because there are only two practice sessions where we are only able to do six to eight laps if you are lucky.”

“The main difference between the Lacetti and the Cruze is the stability. When you drive into a corner the Cruze is much more safer to drive then the Lacetti. Also on the brakes the new car is much stronger. The Lacetti was nervous all the time and sometimes it was very hard to drive.”

“We needed four years to find the best way to drive the Lacetti. That is the reason why we had such a strong fourth season. The advantage of the Lacetti was on the straights because the car had more top-speed. “

We also asked what Rob Huff does away from the race track.

“My girlfriend and I have three dogs so I have to do a lot of stuff when I am at home. Every morning I am running with my dogs and after that I am doing a lot of fitness. I’m more fit than I’ve ever been. After 15 years of smoking I was also able to stop smoking some weeks ago.”

“In the past I’ve been doing one hour fitness each day, now I am doing two hours and I am also spending much time on my mountain bike.”

“We are spending a lot of time on promotion and we are away from home for many weeks. I will spend 2½ weeks in China before Okayama to launch the Cruze model there. After Macau I will stay in Hong Kong for three weeks because we have a big event there after the final. The good thing is that we still have some time for sight-seeing, but to be a racing driver isn’t only to drive a race car – nearly 70% of my job is outside the race car.”

TcT: What are you thoughts on the future of the WTCC, and your future?

“The WTCC is the best touring car series in the world at the moment. We have more manufacturers than anyone else and we have the best drivers. In the mid 90’s the BTCC was the best championship because they had the best drivers and quite a lot manufacturers involved. That’s what makes the best championship in the world and now it is WTCC.”

“For sure we need more manufacturers but the world has seen hard times in the last 18 months and it is still very impressive that so many manufacturers are still involved here because to race here is very expensive.”

“In the future, I want nothing more then to be with Chevrolet in World Touring Cars. For me it’s the best thing ever. I did the 12 hours of Spa with the Volvo this year and it would be nice to start in Le Mans with a LMP1 but I would like to earn my money with touring cars and to become the best touring car driver ever.”