Reigning Red Bull GRC Lites and RX2 champion Cyril Raymond has admitted that he’ll prefer to race in Europe next season, despite his transatlantic success.
The Frenchman won his second RX2 title this season, and added a Red Bull GRC crown with one round to spare, becoming the first driver in history to win WRX and GRC titles.
After spending his entire career racing in Europe, Raymond admitted he was surprised by the high standards that greeted him in the US.
“There’s a very good level here [in GRC],” he said. “There is more attacking and passing on track. I like it, it’s very interesting to drive here and I’m very happy to win this championship.”
However, despite his praise of Red Bull GRC, Raymond admitted that he would prefer to race in Europe next season, but didn’t rule out a second campaign in America.
“If I had the choice, I’d prefer to stay in Europe, In World RX, because it’s more my style,” he said at the Red Bull GRC season finale in Los Angles. “But it’s a good experience to drive in America so why not?”
“I have no idea about my programme for next year yet but for sure I’d like to move up into supercars,” he added. “For sure I will keep my Red Bull sponsorship, I got a very good result for them, but at the moment I have no idea, so we’ll see.”
Olsbergs team boss Andreass Eriksson reiterated his young charger’s statements, saying that he hoped he could either keep hold of Raymond, or that someone could come in and offer him a Supercar deal for 2018.
“I don’t know,” Eriksson said when asked about Raymond’s future by The Checkered Flag. “I hope someone sees his potential and hopefully I can have something where I can still keep him but we don’t know yet.”
“For the moment we have no plans confirmed for him next year and we’ll see what happens.”
