Yann Ehrlacher admits that his Uncle, Yvan Muller, remains ‘a competitor like any other’ in the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR), with the pair having had a close battle in the final race of the weekend in Morocco.
Ehrlacher was one of the form drivers in the first WTCR event, picking up a top ten finishes in all three races – one of only four drivers to do so.
The Frenchman was seventh in the first race on Saturday, before claiming two fourth places in Sunday’s races in his Honda Civic Type-R.
“We need to keep working to find a good balance on the car to be able to get ahead,” said Ehrlacher. “We missed two podiums and were twice fourth, but they are still very good points for the championship.
“It is not too bad – the important thing was to score. It’s a good start, I scored my first points with the Honda family and with the team, who did a lot of work throughout the weekend.”
Ehrlacher was running behind his four-time WTCC champion Uncle in race three in Marrakech, unable to find a way past the Hyundai i30 N TCR.
The 21-year-old admitted that he had used experience from watching Muller’s races whilst he was a child, and joked about the stress that must have been apparent in the Münnich Motorsport garage.
“As for my fight with Yvan in race three, it is clear that even if he remains a competitor like the others once the helmet is put on, it remains a special moment to end up behind him like that, even with contact – after all he taught me.
“I watched his races on TV for so many years, I saw his car so many times from behind in the onboard cameras of drivers who followed him, and there it was me who saw it closely, in real-time!
“I thought of my mother, my father, my grandmother and my grandfather, my whole family who was behind the television completely stressed!
“After, I did my race as I had to do it, think technically about tire wear, etc. I tried to do the job.”