Airwaves Racing’s Fabrizio Giovanardi admits that he is “quite confident” for raceday in the British Touring Car Championship, after qualifying in 11th for the day’s opening race.
Giovanardi improved on his Brands Hatch qualifying performance, where he was only 18th fastest, by posting the 11th quickest time at Donington Park – although the Italian admits that some of the problems are exaggerated by the competitiveness of the championship.
“It’s so close, this championship,” said Giovanardi to TouringCars.Net. “You’ve got more cars very close – and especially at Brands if you start at the back, even if you run two or three tenths faster, if you start eighteenth then in the first corner then you’ve got eighteen seconds of gap. So even if you’re running half a second faster than at the front, there’s no way [you can make it up]. When you start in front you’ve done 80 percent of the job.”
Giovanardi explains that he remains confident for race day, citing engine problems at Brands Hatch as one of the reasons for his underwhelming comeback to the championship.
“It was an improvement on Brands Hatch,” said Giovanardi of his Donington Park qualifying. “At Brands we had an issue with the engine, which is why I was at the back. I’m quite confident because I did that lap time [at Donington Park] with old tyres.”
With Airwaves Racing team-mate Mat Jackson also struggling with the set-up on his car, ending up 14th fastest in qualifying, Giovanardi explains that the biggest challenge going forward is to find a better balance for the car.
“We have to find out why the car with new tyres is not balanced,” said the 47-year-old. “I know that he [Mat Jackson] has got the same problem as me, so it’s not a question of being familiar [with the car], it’s a question of finding out the solution.”