Esteban Guerrieri is hoping to keep his nose clean in this weekend’s World Touring Car Championship races on the streets of Macau, as the Argentine seeks to support Honda team-mate Norbert Michelisz’s title bid.
Guerrieri is making his first visit to the streets of Macau since competing in the Macau Grand Prix in 2007, when he took part in the single seater race.
The Argentine has since made a name for himself in touring cars, and his visit to the circuit this year comes as a factory-backed driver for Honda, after Tiago Monteiro was again declared unfit to race.
Guerrieri admits that racing a touring car on the famous street circuit will be different to his last outing, but that he expects to go well due to his affinity with street circuits from racing at home in Argentina.
“After achieving some strong results in my first weekend with Honda in Japan, I’m delighted to have been asked to race the Civic WTCC in Macau, although I was sorry to hear that Tiago is not yet ready to return,” said Guerrieri.
“I’ve never raced anything with a roof at Macau, but I’ve done quite a lot of racing on street circuits in touring cars in Argentina and in the WTCC
“As long as I can keep my nose clean, I’m confident that I can continue to challenge for two strong results and help the title push for both Honda and Norbi.”
Gerrieri also took part in the WTCC races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife for the first time in 2017 – and he adds that the proximity of the walls in Macau makes for an intense racing experience.
“Before I went to the Nürburgring Nordschleife this year I always said Macau was the most intense single lap for concentration,” added Guerrieri. “The Nürburgring Nordschleife is double that but at Macau you have to go between walls on full power at 100 per cent, you give everything and even more to get the maximum out of the car.
“I like street courses and Macau is top of the street courses. You never know where is the limit or when you are close to the limit. You don’t realise you’ve gone too much until you hit the wall.
“On a normal race track you go off the track and you realised you’ve gone too far. At Macau you never realise how hard you are pushing.”