LADA’s Rob Huff says that he is expecting his forthcoming World Touring Car Championship season, which kicks off this weekend, to be a year of “trial and error” due to a lack of testing with the team’s new Vesta WTCC.
LADA have completed little winter testing due to the late build and completion of the new car – to the extent that third driver Mikhail Kozlovskiy will not even be racing in Argentina this weekend.
Consequently, Huff believes it will be a challenging year once again for the Russian team, despite looking forward to getting underway in Argentina, where last year he took the manufacturer’s first-ever podium in the championship.
“I am very excited to get the season underway, especially in Argentina where we had our first major success,” said Huff. “It’s a hugely popular circuit and will pull in huge crowds thanks to the defending Champion, José María López, and this adds to the atmosphere and makes it a great way to kick-off the season.
“As I haven’t raced in a while and LADA SPORT has a new car in the Vesta, there is a huge amount of anticipation. We haven’t done anywhere near the amount of testing we would have liked to, but what [Team Principal] Viktor Shapovalov and the LADA SPORT ROSNEFT team has done in creating a brand new car from scratch is remarkable, considering we weren’t able to carry information over from last year.
“It’s going to a year of trial and error and we will inevitably make a few errors, but he who makes the fewest mistakes, wins.”
Regarding the team’s new bright yellow machine, carrying sponsorship from Russian oil giant Rosneft, Huff remained coy due to a lack of pre-season testing and available data.
“To put a label on the car at this stage would be unfair, as everything on it is brand new,” added the Brit. “A realistic goal is to finish both races and collect as much data as possible so that we can go away and develop the Vesta during the break between Argentina and Morocco.
“If either James [Thompson] or I do come away with a strong result, it will be a very joyous occasion. I’m excited to get out there, dig deep and show the world what LADA Sport has built.”