Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969 in

Altkirch Altkirch (, ; gsw, label= Alsatian, Àltkìrech) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. The town is traditionally regarded as the capital of Sundgau. Etymology The name of the commune means ''old church'' ...

, Haut-Rhin) is a French

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver most noted for success in

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mov ...

. He is a four-time World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 with Chevrolet and in 2013 with RML. He was British Touring Car Champion in 2003 with Vauxhall.

Racing career

Single-seaters

After competing in

French Formula Renault The Formula Renault 2.0 West European Cup (WEC) was a Formula Renault 2.0 championship that replaced the Championnat de France Formula Renault 2.0 as of 2008,Formula Three, he won the British Formula Two championship title in 1992 and competed in the FIA Formula 3000 Championship in 1993. His sister

Cathy Muller Cathy Muller (born 21 November 1962) is a French former racing driver. She is the older sister of racing driver Yvan Muller and the mother of racing driver Yann Ehrlacher. Racing career Junior formulae Muller started racing in the Renault 5 Turb ...

had previously contested four races in this category between 1986 and 1988.

French Supertouring Championship, Italian Superturismo and Super Tourenwagen Cup

1994 Yvan Muller made his debut in

French Supertouring Championship The Championnat de France de Supertourisme ( en, French Supertouring Championship) was a touring car racing championship organised by the Fédération Française du Sport Automobile between 1976 and 2005. The championship was contested on several ...

with Team BMW Fina finishing third while the following year he became Champion. In 1996 due to lack of manufacturers involved he decide to pass to

Audi Sport Italia Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The ...

and to compete in Italian Superturismo Championship finishing fourth overall. After one season he moved to STW in order to develop the new Audi A4 front wheel. He ended seventh and in 1998 he passed to BTCC. Three years later Muller was called by

N.Technology N.Technology is an Italian auto racing team, founded by Mauro Sipsz and Monica Bregoli. Team history N.Technology (originally named Nordauto Squadra Corse or Team Nordauto) were set up to manage the worldwide sporting activities of the Fiat Grou ...

to run with

Alfa Romeo 156 The Alfa Romeo 156 (Type 932) is a compact executive car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Alfa Romeo. It was introduced at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show as the replacement for the Alfa Romeo 155. The 156 received a positive rec ...

to help Alfa Romeo and Giovanardi to win the European Super Touring Championship 2001.

British Touring Car championship

Yvan Muller started his BTCC career in 1998 replacing Audi Vice Champion Frank Biela that in the while came back in STW. Muller thanks to his major experience with front wheel Audi A4 got three podium and finished 7th in the 1998 championship while his teammate

John Bintcliffe John Simon Bintcliffe (born 7 February 1966 in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England) is a motor racing figure. He has been involved in the British Touring Car Championship as both driver and team owner. He won the Renault Clio Cup ...

finished just 15th. After Audi withdraw at the end of 1998 BTCC, Yvan moved to the Vauxhall Motorsport team run by Triple Eight Race Engineering for 1999 alongside John Cleland using the Vauxhall Vectra. He would win his first BTCC race at round 7 Brands Hatch, he would eventually finish 6th in the championship while teammate John Cleland finished 13th. 2000 was the last year for the Super Tourers in the BTCC. Muller drove for Vauxhall again while

Jason Plato Timothy Jason Plato (born 14 October 1967) is a British racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for BTC Racing. He has twice been BTCC Champion, in 2001 for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He ...

and Vincent Radermecker joined after leaving

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

and

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

who pulled out at the end of 1999. The Frenchman finished as the top driver for Vauxhall in 4th in the championship behind all three Ford drivers (

Alain Menu Alain Menu (born 9 August 1963) is a Swiss racing driver who is currently working for Team BMR as a driving coach. He was one of the most successful touring car drivers of the 1990s, winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship twice ...

Anthony Reid Anthony Reid is a British auto racing driver, born on 17 May 1957 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was educated at Loretto School in Edinburgh. He lives in England. Formula cars He spent many years in Formula Three and other junior single-seater cham ...

and

Rickard Rydell Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Cham ...

). In 2001 the regulations changed to the new Touring Cars. Vauxhall debuted its

BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Coupe The Vauxhall Astra Coupe is a BTC-Touring class racing car that was built for the 2001 British Touring Car Championship season by Triple 8 Race Engineering, who ran Vauxhall's official works program. It was the first BTC Touring-specification ...

for both the Vauxhall Motorsport team and Egg Sport both run by Triple Eight Race Engineering. The Astra was the car to beat against its competitors. Muller and teammate Plato fought for the championship the whole season. Muller finished 2nd in the championship after his car caught fire in the final race leaving Plato as the champion. 2002 BTCC would be much of the same. The Astra was the best car against

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

, MG and

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...

despite some reliability problems throughout the season. James Thompson moved up to Vauxhall Motorsport after 2001 champion Jason Plato left to drive in NASCAR. Yvan finished 2nd in the championship again behind teammate James Thompson after more bad luck during the season and last few races caused him to again miss out on the title. He would again drive in 2003 for Vauxhall. The team now called VX Racing continued racing the Astra Coupe and also streached to a three car works Vauxhall/VXR team after Egg Sport was dropped. The Astra Coupe was again the car to beat and Yvan Muller and James Thompson again fought for the championship. Muller won his first title from teammate Thompson after a very strong season. 2004 would be the last year for the Astra Coupe. The Astra was challenged very hard in 2004 by Honda, MG and Seat making its debut with former Vauxhall driver and 2001 champion Jason Plato, but consistency lead both the VX Racing teammates of Yvan Muller and James Thompson to fight for the championship. Thompson won his second championship from Muller by one point. 2005 saw the new BTC-T Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch replace the extremely successful Astra Coupe for Vauxhall. The Astra Sport Hatch was out classed by the new Honda Integra and prevented Muller from winning a second title. He finished second in the championship for the 4th time in 5 years, making a decision at the end of 2005, Muller left the BTCC to drive for Seat in the WTCC.

V8 Supercar

Muller competed in the two Australian

V8 Supercar The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

endurance races each year for a number of years, taking victory at the 2005 Sandown 500 with local driver

Craig Lowndes Craig Andrew Lowndes (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing driver in the Repco Supercars Championship competing in the Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He is also a TV commentator. Lowndes is a three-time V8 Sup ...

in their Betta Electrical Triple Eight BA Falcon. In the same year, he was also involved in one of the most memorable incidents at the Mount Panorama for the Bathurst 1000, where in the lead, Craig Lowndes clipped the wall at Reid Park, and after a watts link change, another incident saw a wheel part company from

Paul Dumbrell Paul Dumbrell (born 1 September 1982) is an Australian business executive and retired racing driver. Racing history Junior career Son of former racing driver Garry Dumbrell, Paul Dumbrell started racing in karts in 1996 and by the end of 1997 D ...

's car and hit the windscreen of Lowndes. In 2006 and 2007, Muller has been unable to race in the two annual enduros due to a clash with WTCC.

World Touring Car championship

SEAT (2006–2009)

On 12 November 2005 it was officially announced that he would be switching to the 2006 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), driving for SEAT Sport. A pair of 2nd places in the opening meeting in Monza showed that he was a likely frontrunner, his first win then coming in round 5 at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hos ...

. He was classified 4th at the end of the season with 62pts. He finished 2nd in the 2007 WTCC with 81pts, and he lost the title to

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

driver Andy Priaulx (

BMW 320si The fifth generation of the BMW 3 Series range of compact executive cars is designated under the model codes E90 (saloon), E91 (estate, marketed as 'Touring'), E92 (coupé) and E93 (convertible). The model was introduced in December 2004, and pr ...

) during the last race in Macau where his SEAT León TDI suffered a fuel pump failure when he was leading the first race with one lap to go, which put him out of race 2 at Macau. He opened 2008 with a victory at

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in Brazil's South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area ...

, Brazil. Yvan Muller was battling for the championship, primarily with teammate Gabriele Tarquini during the season, and finally won the championship at the final round in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. In 2009, Yvan was beaten to the title by teammate Tarquini, taking four victories.

Chevrolet (2010–2012)

Yvan Muller 2010 WTCC Race of Japan (Free Practice 2)

He moved to rival team

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ou ...

in 2010. He scored pole position and won his first race for the team in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. He took further wins in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

to become the 2010 World Touring Car Champion and the first driver to win the title for two teams. Muller stayed with the team in 2011. At the end of the year he was champion once again after a close battle with teammate

Rob Huff Robert Peter "Rob" Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British professional racing driver. He currently competes in the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) driving for Zengő Motorsport. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Championship champion and the ...

, matching Andy Priaulx's record of three WTCC titles. Muller stayed with Chevrolet in 2012.

RML (2013)

Muller stayed with the RML team for 2013 season, now racing as an independent entry after the withdrawal of Chevrolet from the World Touring Car Championship. He drove a Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T alongside former Team Aon driver

Tom Chilton Thomas James Chilton (born 15 March 1985) is a British racing driver. He has spent most of his career competing in touring car racing; he was a former factory Vauxhall and Honda driver in the British Touring Car Championship, and currently driv ...

. He won both races at the season opening Race of Italy in wet conditions to score his first victories as an independent touring car driver.

Citroën (2014–2016)

Yvan Muller 2014 WTCC Race of Japan (Race 1)

In August 2013 it was announced that Muller would join Citroën Racing for the

2014 World Touring Car Championship season The 2014 FIA World Touring Car Championship was a motor racing competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for Super 2000 Cars. It was the eleventh FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the tenth since the ...

alongside nine–time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb in a two–year deal. Muller is founder and team principal of Yvan Muller Racing, which enters cars in various motorsport disciplines including sports car racing, and also helps to train young drivers. Muller announced that the 2016 season would be his last in the WTCC, as he was retiring from the sport to concentrate on his family and race team.

Volvo (2017)

During 2017 he took on a role as test- and development-driver for

Polestar Cyan Racing Cyan Racing is the official motorsport partner to Geely Group Motorsport, formerly the Volvo factory auto racing team, and runs the FIA WTCR programme for Lynk & Co, based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The team’s current drivers are Thed Björk ...

. He returned to the championship to replace Nestor Girolami for the season finale in Qatar.

M Racing-YMR (2018)

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

returned to full-time racing with a couple self-owned Hyundai i30 N TCRs for himself and Thed Björk. He finished runner-up in the drivers championship and M Racing-YMR was the teams champions.

Cyan Racing Lynk & Co (2019-2020)

For 2019 he returned to Cyan Racing driving one of four

Lynk & Co 03 TCR The Lynk & Co 03 TCR is a racing car developed by Cyan Racing, which has also developed Volvo, having won the WTCC in 2017 which, like Lynk & Co, is part of the Geely group. The race car is based on the eponymous Lynk & Co 03. History The deve ...

Other racing categories

He primarily races in

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mov ...

, but also participates in other categories. In particular, he has won the Andros Trophy Ice Racing Championship 10 times (a record), with 46 race victories (also a record). During the early years of his career, he competed in the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

in 1993 and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

, but did not finish. He was originally entered to take part in the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

race in an Audi R8C but withdrew from the squad before any official running. In 2007, he participated in the Dakar Rally. In

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

(following the 2008 cancellation) he also participated in the Dakar Rally in South America, but he withdrew during the 5th stage. He represented France in the 2007 Race of Champions, alongside Sébastien Bourdais. He participated in the Rallye de France–Alsace in a

Citroën Xsara WRC The Citroën Xsara WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Citroën Xsara road car. The car was introduced for the 2001 World Rally Cha ...

, a round of the 2010 World Rally Championship.

Racing record

Complete International Formula 3000 results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Italian Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Super Tourenwagen Cup results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – 1998–2002 all races, 2003–present just in first race) Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded – 2001–present all races) * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap (1 point given – 1998–2002 just in feature race, 2003–present all races)

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † – Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete World Touring Car Cup results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

WTCC statistics

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete World Rally Championship results

Complete V8 Supercar results

+ Guest Driver

References

External links