Yann discusses his uncle’s influence, the demands of driving a TC1 World Touring Car and his strong performance in the official test at Monza earlier this month.

Your deal with RC Motorsport to race in the WTCC has only recently come together – how did it happen?
“I tested a TC1 car with another manufacturer and it went quite well. Then the project with RC Motorsport came up. The team is based at Magny-Cours, they work with ORECA and I’ve worked a lot with them before. It was quite a hard decision from the team to take me because I have no experience of front-wheel drive and I don’t know any of the tracks. They have taken the risk and I have to prove to them that I can do it.”

​How have your pre-season preparations gone so far?
“Because [my deal] has come together in one and a half weeks, it’s a small time to test, to know anything and there is a lot of new information for me to know. In all my previous series I drove, you can’t do anything on the engine – it’s locked for the entire season. But in the WTCC you can manage some set-up on the engine, which is quite important for the performance. Simulators are also important because with tracks like Marrakech and so on it’s quite complicated to learn. I’m also watching some video that the engineer from from team gave me from Nicky last year, so that really helps a lot, but there is the one new track in China we do not know. But that’s the same for everybody. The years before, I was ready in my head a bit earlier – maybe at the end of the previous year. But I will work and I will do it.”

You were third fastest in the official pre-season test at Monza – how did that feel?
“I was not expecting that. I was learning on the track too because I’ve never driven on this track. But there is still a lot of work to do because I’m not sure that the other cars were at 100 per cent, so there is a lot to do now to be ready for Marrakech. We will do some other testing in Magny-Cours. There we have some reference laps from Gabriele Tarquini and Nicky Catsburg, but in Monza it was completely new because the championship didn’t drive there last year.”

What was it like driving at Monza, did you have any concerns?
“No, the car went well. We drove a lot – we did almost 100 laps, and the car was perfect. We did all the laps without problem except for a puncture towards the end. The car went perfectly and we just improved the set-ups because in Monza it’s quite a different track because of the fast straights, so it was a productive day.”

Your uncle, Yvan Muller, is of course a four-time WTCC champion – how helpful is that and is he giving you lots of advice?
“I’ve followed Yvan’s racing since I was born, when he was in British Touring Cars. The spirit of the race and so on is something I’ve known for a long time, and my father was a professional football player in France so sport is something big in my family. I’m using Yvan as an advisor because he knows everything in racing and especially in front-wheel-drive [cars]. For sure, I will ask him if I have some questions but the thing is he is going to Volvo now, it’s a bit more difficult to have him with me because he’s not in my box and so on. But that’s also a good thing, because I have to do things on my own and it’s also better to improve myself in my career.”