Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente says there is no other track like the Nürburgring Nordschleife, with the Frenchman saying there is always something new to learn around the 170-turn circuit.
Valente heads into the WTCC race weekend at the legendary Nordschleife buoyed by a recent race one podium in Budapest, and the Frenchman showed signs of continuing that pace in practice at the Nordschleife, clocking the second best time in second practice.
“It’s crazy – there’s no other track like this,” said Valente to TouringCars.Net. “I think every driver is happy to be here, and it brings out a lot of new things for us to learn.
“For some of us who don’t know the track very well, we have to just keep learning because there’s more than a hundred corners. It’s very important to get everything under control to be able to put everything together in one lap in qualifying, because even if you’re faster yesterday or today the important part is tonight. And if you make one mistake here you can lose four seconds.”
The 22-year-old admits that there is always something new to learn on the 170-turn Nordschleife circuit, maintaining that drivers have to treat the circuit with respect in order to stay out of the barriers.
“We were lucky to come here two weeks ago, so it’s still pretty fresh in the head. You have to go slowly at the beginning, because you think you know the track but there’s always a bump you forget or a crest where you don’t get as much traction. It’s very difficult, but you have to treat the track with respect and humility at the beginning. If you think you know it and just go flat-out you’ll just end up in the barrier.”
Valente added that he hopes for another strong performance in qualifying, with the Chevrolet driver focussing on his raw pace and single-lap performance in an effort to attract a works’ driver for the future.
“I don’t want to aim for P10 and play that game anymore,” explained Valente. “I’m trying to be an official driver for next year, so realistically it’s good to be on the podium and win races. It’s going to be difficult to win race one on every occasion, because Citroën is always fast, but I’d prefer to be in Q3 and fight for pole position than get P10 and win race two.
“My third place in Budapest felt like a much bigger achievement than any of my third places last year, because all of them were in race two. In race one it feels like you’re part of the fastest guys; you’re not just there because you started from the front row.
“I’d probably get more points for the championship if I tried to be P10 and start from the front row, especially if I have good pace, and win race two. But if I want to be at Citroën next year or somewhere else, I hope they’ll look at qualifying and see that I’m always in front of the other Chevrolets and that I can fight sometimes with the Citroëns. I hope they would look more into that than getting a podium in race two.
“It’s annoying because the points are the same in race one and race two, but for the confidence as a driver I prefer to fight for qualifying results.”