Yvan Muller wants World Rally Car for next WRC appearance as S2000 too slow

Muller made his World Rally Championship debut in an ex-Petter Solberg Citroen Xsara WRC on last year's Rally of France, but stepped down to a normally-aspirated Peugeot 207 S2000 for this year's event.

"I'm not pleased with the balance of the car but there's no power to it at all," said the Frenchman, who was born in Altkirch, close to Rallye de France headquarters in Strasbourg.

"It's nice to be out in front of my home crowd for once, as there's no race track in Alsace, but that's the best and only thing. We are very slow, and compared to last year I'm not really enjoying myself.

"I'm at 100km/h in sixth gear and that is it; it's terrible. With a turbo, it's definitely much more fun."

Muller showed himself to be capable of top-10 times with the Xsara last year, but has been off the pace this year. He stopped with a gearbox problem on the opening day yesterday but had a trouble-free run throughout Saturday to end up just outside the top 40.

However, the 42-year-old says that his next outing on the Rallye de France will have a distinctly different look to it.

"I will be back - but maybe just as a spectator," he said.