Former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff believes that the 2017 season represents ‘the most unpredictable year’ yet in the WTCC, as he prepares to take on the season at the wheel of an independent Citroën.
Huff has already clocked up some testing mileage at the wheel of his new Münnich Motorsport steed, but testing at Monza earlier in the month represented the first time he got to share track time with his rivals.
The Brit refused to name any driver who he thinks will be a main contender for the title, believing that this year represents a particularly unpredictable season.
“I wouldn’t want to name names,” said Huff to TouringCars.Net when asked who he feels his main rivals will be. “I don’t think you can label anyone. Motorsport is a game of expect the unexpected; [you can’t] predict anything. You just never know what’s going to happen when the first race kicks off.
“Even with the first half season done, it almost means nothing. You’ve just got to be in the game at the last race and do your best.
“I think everyone is a major competitor – we’ve got four Citroëns out there, three unknowns in the Volvo and the Honda that has moved on, so it’s going to be a tough year. But ultimately I’m ready and everyone needs to be on their A-game.
“I think it’s probably the most unpredictable year that you could have.”
Huff is unfazed by the potential challenges of his rivals, instead preferring to focus on his own season – even having gone as far as to say that he is pleased to not have a team-mate this year.
“As a racecar driver, I don’t really care,” reasserted Huff. “I’m not worried about any of them.”
When pressed, Huff did reveal that he thinks Volvo will have made gains, but that they probably won’t have made enough steps forward to challenge the dominant C-Elysée.
“I think the hidden or unknown quantity is going to be the Volvo. That thing last year was monstrously quick in a straight line and towards the end of the year they really got on top of the handling of it, but at the same time they were still being pushed to win a race with a Citroën behind them which had 80 kg on-board.
“If anyone has made that big of a gain I’ll be very surprised. Volvo have also gone for three drivers who have never developed a car before and that’s why they got Yvan [Muller] testing for them a few weeks ago.
“I think that leaves a bit of a question mark possibly around what they’re doing and what they’ve got. But ultimately I know that they still haven’t got the budget or the engineering background behind them to produce something equal to the Citroën.”