James Thompson had a mixed campaign at the wheel of the LADA Granta in the 2013 World Touring Car Championship, with his best result of the season coming in the teams’ home race.
Speaking to TouringCars.net, Thompson reviews his campaign as a whole as well as looking to the future and the British Touring Car Championship.
The two time British Touring Car Championship Champion finished 14th in the Overall Drivers’ Championship with 41 points, with the best result coming at Moscow Raceway, where he finished 5th in the opening race.
“Our best result came at Moscow,” explains Thompson. “It could have been better in the second race as well but for some of our competitors. We were under pressure to perform at home in front of our home crowd.”
Thompson and the LADA team finished the campaign without a podium finish, and they were denied their best chance by an over optimistic move on the streets of Macau by Pepe Oriola.
Oriola was given a reprimand for the move and Thompson said that it wouldn’t make any difference in the long run.
“It makes no difference, there are no issues for the future,” Thompson explained. “It was more disappointing that it put my car in the wall [at Maternity bend] and out of the race.
“People don’t like being behind a LADA and they don’t seem to be very patient. They can’t seem to overtake and you can’t overtake after the first corner [Lisboa].
“From my point of view, it’s disappointing as it shattered our dreams of a podium finish.”
Thompson admitted that there wasn’t one particular moment which stood out as the team had exceeded expectations by taking the fight to the RML Chevrolets.
“Looking back, no one result was the highlight of the season. The highlight has been the change in perception of everyone. We were written off at the start of the season as a back of the grid team – LADA has always been a back of the grid team.
“LADA are now a middle of the grid team, fighting for tenth place in qualifying and it’s a surprise if we don’t make Q2. We are always fighting for points and that’s not easy in that Championship against six Chevrolets and 3 Hondas.
“There were a couple of occasions where a better qualifying session would have meant we weren’t mid-grid, like at Porto where we finished sixth in both races having started mid-grid.”
“We’ve been racing cars all year which have been winning races and yet we’ve not had a podium finish,” added Thompson.
LADA Sport is expanding to a three car outfit for the 2014 campaign as Rob Huff joins the team after a year in the ALL-INKL.com Münnich Motorsport SEAT Leon. Huff is joining both Thompson and his 2013 team-mate Mikhail Kozlovskiy in the team.
Thompson adds that the team always planned on expanding with the Granta – they previously ran a trio of LADA 110’s when they first entered the series in 2008. Additionally three cars were run in 2009 when Thompson joined a three-car line up, aloongside Jaap van Lagan and Kirill Ladygin.
“Of course it would have been impossible for the team this year to have run three cars due to the limitations of the regulations,” the Briton added.
“Viktor [Shapovalov] and I have always talked about the future and expanding and I have always been a part of it. I have driven for LADA since 2009 and it has been a continuation of the work done to get a programme together.
“I’ve been a big part of that and we have talked about drivers and I have been in the process of helping choose who drives the car. I felt that Rob would be perfect for us because of having won the World Championship and then driving for a private team.
“We are evolving as a team, it’s only our first proper year as a full professional team and we need someone who will understand what we are going through and I feel Rob has the perfect mentality for that.
“He’s achieved his goal of being World Champion and this will bring added Kudos to our programme and I am very confident I can work well with him. I think we will all be pushing in the right direction.”
The 2013 campaign saw over 40 drivers take part in at least one of the 12 race weekends and there was one driver in particular impressed Thompson throughout the season: “The driver who impressed me the most was Norbi [Norbert Michelisz]. I think he did a fantastic job considering its [Zengő Motorsport] such a small team his performances have been very good.
“When you consider his performances against the other two guys [Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro] he has consistently been in front of them or fighting with them.
“Apart from the first couple of weekends, he’s finished exceptionally well and for the younger generation – which you have to consider him to be – he’s been exceptionally impressive.”
“The Championship is in a very strong state,” summarised Thompson. “Next year it will be interesting to see if things are even more open.”
Looking ahead to the 2014 season, with the new cars coming into the series as well as Citroën joining the field with Sébastian Loeb and Yvan Muller, Thompson hopes that they aren’t too far ahead as they are already testing their WTCC racer.
“The initial question is, are Citroën going to be so far ahead, as they have the car testing all over the place?
“Our car won’t be ready until February or March time next year so the reality is, have they done the job which Chevrolet did when we changed to the 1.6 Turbo rules? Will they be so far ahead that we can’t catch them? I’m not so sure as the regulations allow for a totally different dimension really. The rules are now a lot more free.
“The biggest problem for us was that our car is an €8,000 car which is for the Russian people and they are very proud of that. The dimensions of that mean that it has to deal with Russian roads and it doesn’t lend itself to being made into a performance racing car.
“We are fighting against the fundamentals compared to a BMW which starts off as a €40,000 car. What the new regulations are doing is giving us a fighting chance.”
Thompson also admits that he’d love to return to the BTCC one day, having taken the title for Vauxhall in 2002 and 2004. Since joining the WTCC grid in 2005, he has done sporadic races in the series, with his last BTCC race at the wheel of the third Motorbase Performance run Airwaves Racing Ford Focus in 2011, when he was drafted in to support Mat Jackson in his quest for the title.
“Would I ever consider a return? Of course, “he said. “I’m very proud to have won the Championship twice.
“I still take an interest and from my side, I’m still ambitious even though I’m close to 40. I’ve won the BTCC, I’ve won the European Championship [ETCC] but I’ve not won the World Championship, I’ve only managed to finish in the top 3.
“I’m hoping that the LADA project can build on this year, next year and the year after that until we can challenge for the title. I’m not afraid of a long term project and that’s why I’ve always tried to get involved in something which would take a few years to achieve that goal.
Thompson concluded by saying where he’d like the WTCC to visit if he had his way and what circuits in the UK he misses racing at.
“Well, as a BRDC member, I’d like them to come to Silverstone,” explains Thompson. “We miss a race meeting in the UK but it’s not been on the calendar for a few years. It would be nice to have two home races; one at Silverstone and one at Moscow.
“Yeah, I enjoyed Oulton Park, Donington Park, Silverstone, Brands Grand Prix circuit. The British circuits require a different style of driving compared to most of the circuits in the WTCC. It’s a different challenge.”
The 2014 World Touring Car Championship gets underway on the streets of Marrakech over the 6th and 7th April, with Thompson in the new LADA Granta alongside Huff and Kozlovskiy.