Back-to-back world titles and still only 25. Yann Ehrlacher appears to have everything going for him to match and perhaps surpass his uncle Yvan Muller as one of touring car racing’s most decorated drivers.
There was little that was spectacular about the Frenchman’s campaign this time in the World Touring Car Cup. But just as in 2020, uncle Yvan had his back, and in Cyan Racing the pair, plus rapid Uruguayan Santiago Urrutia and ex-World Touring Car Champion Thed Bjork, benefited from the best-drilled team.
The Lynk & Co was consistently the best car too. Ehrlacher only won twice, but scored in all 16 races – and that’s what wins you tin-top titles.
How Ehrlacher triumphed again
“Yann hasn’t had a single DNF this year. I think that stands out and that’s why we’re here with the trophy again.”
That was the verdict of Cyan Racing boss Fredrik Wahlen on why Yann Ehrlacher claimed a second successive World Touring Car Cup in 2021.
No one stands head-and-shoulders above the rest in WTCR, because the nature of Balance of Performance and compensation weight racing just won’t allow it, such are the swings in form from round to round.
Flattening out the troughs is the key to title glory, just as it is in the British Touring Car Championship, and no team does it better than Cyan with its Chinese Lynk & Cos.
Only one of Ehrlacher’s two race victories was from a ‘real’ race unaffected by partially reversed grids, but that performance from pole position at Adria stretched his points lead almost out of the reach of his rivals before the final weekend at Sochi.
He also won at Estoril early in the season, on a weekend when Lynk & Co had angrily called out the WTCR for its BoP management. Awkward. Politics is rife in this corner of the tin-top globe.
But what’s great about the WTCR is the mix of talent, from a spring of youth that includes Ehrlacher, Mikel Azcona and Luca Engstler, to the oaky maturity of such as Yvan Muller, 52 – who failed to win a race but was still fourth in points – and 59-year-old Gabriele Tarquini.
PLUS: The much-loved tin-top superstar bowing out at 59
The Italian claimed a reversed-grid win at Motorland Aragon before he took the decision to retire at season’s end. For perspective, his 38-race F1 career was already over and he’d already conquered the BTCC when Ehrlacher was born in 1996. Tarquini’s time is finally up; the champion’s has only just begun.
