by Russell Atkins
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Chevrolet ace Rob Huff is making no bones about his ambitions in the World Touring Car Championship in 2008 to deliver the bowtie manufacturer its maiden crown in a series in which its Lacetti had initially lapped a gaping four seconds away from the leading pace.
The British star finished ninth in the final drivers' standings in 2007, after triumphing at Anderstorp in Sweden and notching up a trio of other podium finishes. He is understandably effusive in his praise for the work Ray Mallock's squad have done with the car, one that upon its entry into the WTCC fold back at Monza three years ago achieved a highest qualifying position of a distant 21st place in Huff's hands.
I'm very, very excited, the 28-year-old enthused, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio ahead of the new season, which gets into gear in Curitiba in Brazil this weekend. The Chevrolet has come on in leaps and bounds, RML have done a fantastic job with the car and we're going to hit the ground running this year and do our damndest to walk away with the championship.
RML are in my view the best team out there, and they've worked wonders with the car. We turned up at Monza in the first year four seconds off the pace, and when we went back there this year we were about two tenths off the pace. That just shows you how far the car has come in three years, and that's purely down to the feedback of us three drivers and the expertise at RML.
The biggest problem we struggled with [in 2007] was the consistency, with the car lacking maybe just a little bit of strength on the front end when it came to having a ricochet off one of the other drivers at the start or whatever. We've worked on that a bit, and it seems to have proven well over the winter. Yet again we've made really strong progress, and we're just looking forward to getting out for the first race in Brazil and showing everyone exactly what we've done.
That progress may be held in-check somewhat, however, by the advantage currently being enjoyed by rival SEAT, who introduced a diesel engine into its Leon for the last four meetings of the 2007 campaign and promptly dominated the field. Yvan Muller only missed out on the title in the final race in Macau due to a fuel system failure, and Huff is concerned that the championship should not turn into an advertisement for the benefits of turbodiesel technology.
Judging by the SEAT's performance when they brought it out for the last four rounds effectively winning all four of them I think it's probably fair to say that anyone without a diesel is going to struggle, he reflected. It's for the
FIA now to do their job, which is equalisation. I think they made a mistake by not monitoring what SEAT were doing with the diesel at the end of last year, and it upset a lot of people with just how quick the thing was in a straight line. They turned up, bolted a turbo onto a diesel and off they went.
Good for them they've transformed their car from being a couple of tenths off the pace to half a second quicker than anything else in a straight line. They did a cracking job, and it's obviously up to us to try and catch up again.
It was a little bit disheartening, I have to say, because just at the point where Chevrolet was starting to come on really strong and getting on top of everyone out there seven wins out of 22 races we just walked away with they come and bring the diesel out. It was a little frustrating in that sense, but at the same time it's a new goal for us to aim at, and I think there's no reason why we can't achieve that as long as the FIA wear thicker glasses this year.
We've got to be careful, because in the first two rounds [in Brazil and Mexico] a turbodiesel is going to have an advantage. We're at serious altitude, and everyone knows petrol engines struggle, whilst a diesel isn't going to be quite as affected because obviously they can just wind the boost up or whatever; they can come across ways of upping the power of it quite easily. With a normally-aspirated engine, if the air is the thickness that it is there, it will only combust at that rate.
It's going to be very difficult, and the FIA have to be very careful and perhaps not call it too soon I think it would be unfair on SEAT if they did do that but at the same time there has to be equality. When you've got a diesel engine with a turbo and a petrol engine without a turbo, it's going to be a very tall task for them this year to get the equality. At the end of the day we're all here to race, but it's very difficult to race something that's a lot quicker than you in a straight line.
Facing an uphill struggle he and the rest of the front wheel-drive brigade may well be, but Huff is certainly not throwing in the towel, and he makes it clear that he is targeting nothing less than the outright laurels in 2008. That may be an audacious claim, but then, looking back, who would ever have tipped RML to win more races than any other team with the Lacetti in 2007, given their distinctly low-key series debut just two years earlier..?
For sure it's going to be the toughest it's ever been, the inaugural SEAT Cupra Challenge Champion acknowledged. Andy (Priaulx) has done a fantastic job he truly is a legend now in touring cars. You can't fault the guy; he's done the most unbelievable job for the last four years. To walk away from last year with three world championships back-to-back under his belt really is something that I think will stay in the record books for a very, very long time.
BMW have been the ones to beat for the last four years, and I'm looking forward to standing here next year saying Chevrolet were the ones to beat last year. There's no reason with the work RML have done on the car why Chevrolet can't come away with the championship this year.
I don't want to come across as arrogant at all, but at the end of the day if I don't believe it then it won't happen, and I truly believe that I'm in a position now where we can do it. We'll just have to wait and see, but I believe I can do it and I hope there are a few other people out there who believe I can do it as well.
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