Muller calls time on his WTCC career

Four-time World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller will call time on his World Touring Car Championship career at the end of the current season.

Citroen driver Muller won the 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013 titles, and holds many of the championship’s records having raced in the WTCC since 2006.

The Frenchman joined Citroen ahead of the start of its WTCC project in 2014, but has been overshadowed since then by team-mate Jose Maria Lopez. Muller is currently second in the 2016 standings, 126 points behind Lopez, who recently won a third-straight title.

But Muller remains the most successful driver in the championship’s modern era and has the outright records for wins, pole positions, podiums, fastest laps and points scored. His first crown with SEAT in 2008 ended Andy Priaulx’s run of three titles in the first three years of the revamped WTCC, and he won the rest of his championships during a dominant spell with the Chevrolet team.

Muller, who also won the British Touring Car Championship in 2003, said he was stepping down because the demands of competition now exceed what he is prepared to commit to.

“I am not sure that age is the main factor when it comes to ending a career,” said 47-year-old Muller. “It’s more a matter of desire and motivation.

“With all the testing, the simulator sessions, the physical training and the travel to the race venues, a season of professional motor racing requires a level of personal commitment that I am no longer prepared to do.”