Nève: “They should have avoided the contact”

Although Chevrolet has dominated the Monza weekend, claiming two 1-2 finishes in both races, the hot topic has been the hard fight between the three works drivers. TouringCarTimes has spoken to Eric Nève, manager of Chevrolet Motorsports Europe.

“We have no team orders,” said Nève, “but we don’t want any contact between our drivers. In Race 1 Rob (Huff) and Alain (Menu) made contact, but Menu locked the front wheels under-braking and apologised to his team-mate, saying it wasn’t intentional.”

Nève feels the incident between Muller and Menu was different:
“What happened was that Yvan came out of the Roggia chicane a little quicker and tried to get on the inside of Alain and they touched. They should have avoided the contact, I think he just went one step too far.”

The incident didn’t hurt Chevrolet in terms of manufacturer points, but Nève is still adamant that things like that should not happen again.

“We got a 1-2, which means maximum points for us in the manufacturers’ championship, so that’s good. But we need to make sure that everything stabilizes, because the championship is long and SEAT and Volvo haven’t brought the new engine, so you never know what’s going to happen in the future.”

“Also, from the Monza weekend, the engines are sealed, and they have to last for six races. We think they will, but if they don’t then we will get penalties. We must not play with our luck too much.”

Talking about the atmosphere in the team with all three drivers fighting for the championship, Eric Nève feels this will benefit the sport, but it has to be managed carefully.

“We want this championship to be attractive and spectacular, and we have full faith in our drivers, who are among the best in the world. Of course the main opponents used to be outside the team in the past, whereas now the main rivals are within the team. We have to make sure that everything stays in the given rules without killing the show, and that’s the challenge for us.”

When asked about the rivals he fears the most, Nève said that he is sure that the other teams will reduce the gap compared to Chevrolet in the future.

“BMW were competitive in Curitiba with Coronel, and Michelisz just narrowly missed the podium (at Monza), and SEAT and Volvo are yet to come with the new engine, which is something we hope will happen in the near future. The competition hasn’t said its last word and we haven’t seen a lot of the real speed of our opponents.”

Chevrolet are not thinking about next year’s driver line-up, and Nève seems open to different solutions, although he claims that the team needs to focus on the current season at the moment.

“I haven’t thought about drivers yet. What I think is that the manufacturers’ market is what it is, and I don’t think that the drivers will disappear and go to other championships or brands, so we’ll concentrate on the current season, there’s no need to rush. We have five races in two months, so we are really getting into the full boost of the championship and we need to focus on that, mainly.”