Rob Huff confirms no offer on the table for 2020

2012 world touring car champion Rob Huff has confirmed to TouringCarTimes that he may be forced out of the sport at the end of the current season, with no team having approached the Briton about a potential 2020 seat.

Huff, who has raced at world touring car level uninterruptedly since 2005, is driving for the Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen team this season, but is yet to win a race in 2019.

He does currently rank as the highest-placed Volkswagen driver in the overall classification, sitting ninth – four points clear of rookie team-mate Johan Kristoffersson.

However, with Volkswagen recently announcing its withdrawal from the World Touring Car Cup at the end of the campaign as part of a shift towards electric racing, Huff is facing a winter of uncertainty.

“This is the first time in 15 years that I’m really not confident to be in the championship next year,” Huff said to TouringCarTimes at the WTCR season-finale at Sepang.

“I’ve been here longer than any driver in the championship, started the most races, and I’m a little bit surprised because no one came to speak to me. I am speaking to people, but really at the moment [it appears] I’m sitting at home doing nothing.

“OK, I’m not, because I have businesses in Asia with my race school, I have Chinese touring cars, I have my own racing team, but for my personal racing I have absolutely nothing. It’s a shame, but it is the reality.”

TouringCarTimes understands one option could be for Huff to continue competing for SLR, perhaps in the same Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR he is driving this season, albeit in a privateer capacity that would require external funding.

SLR is believed to be retaining the services of at least one of its drivers, Mehdi Bennani, next season.

Huff endured a difficult Friday at Sepang, ending up 26th in both of the day’s qualifying sessions. He also struck one of the debated tyre stacks that organisers have installed around the former Malaysian Grand Prix venue in a bid to control track limits, earning a penalty point on his licence.

“I clipped one, literally just clipped it, the one coming onto the straight before the start/finish line,” Huff explained.

“I was just understeering a little bit coming out of the corner under power and the car just skipped one inch to the left. It caused a Full Course Yellow and I’m really sorry for that, but we’re pushing all the time.

“I love being able to race on tracks like this, but… if it was a street circuit you don’t need tyre stacks. I’m all for safety and everything and I think it’s brilliant with the technology that has happened, but at the same time, it doesn’t look great to have ten tyre stacks. Yes, if they don’t put them then we use it [the track] but is it quicker if we use it? If we all use it, is it not the same for everyone? I don’t know, sometimes it just causes more problems than solutions.”