Yvan Muller: “I didn’t plan to come back to racing”

Yvan Muller’s retirement from being behind the wheel lasted less than 12 months, when he was put back in action at Losail last year by Polestar Cyan Racing to support Thed Björk’s title bid. Now the Frenchman is back to racing full time, spurred on by his own team to race in this year’s WTCR.

The 48-year-old will pair up with 2017 WTCC champion Björk this year, with Yvan Muller Racing running a pair of the highly-rated Hyundai i30 N TCRs in this year’s World Touring Car Cup season, with Muller remarking that he was also on the grid of the last one, 23 years ago.

“I know that in 1995 in the last World Touring Car Cup, (Gabriele) Tarquini was there, I was there, and here we are in the new one and we’re still here,” said Muller.

“It’s a good move to be back with these rules as they’re economically good rules,” he added. “The cost of the cars is three-times less than TC1. Of course, those cars were fantastic to drive, but they were too expensive…I would never have done my own WTCC team with those rules, as I wasn’t financially capable of doing it. And when you look at the number of cars that will be on the grid, that proves this is a good move. 5-6 years ago when we were talking about technical rules, I was pushing for the rules we have now.”

Muller’s role for 2018 will be new to him, as both team principal and driver, with the four-time WTCC champion saying it’s the team boss and development role which will be his main focus.

“I’ve had my team for five years, but I’ve never raced in it,” said Muller. “My situation, my thinking, my mindset will be very different, I’m more focussed as a manager than as a driver.”

The 48-year-old said Thed Björk was the obvious choice as his team-mate after working with him last year, but also admits that the initial plan was to have his nephew Yann Ehrlacher with him in the team.

“For me, if I was to have my own team, Thed has to be with me,” explained Muller. “We worked hard together last year; he won the championship and I was on his side, and I was part of his season – and the relationship we had last year was fantastic. I wanted to have him in the team as he’s a good guy, he’s a good driver, and for a team this is important.

“I didn’t plan to have myself in my car. My initial idea was to race Thed and Yann, unfortunately I couldn’t do that, but in the end Yann’s with a good team and a good car.”