Experienced touring car star Gabriele Tarquini says he is excited to be back at the top level of touring car racing, having missed the racing whilst he was away developing the Hyundai i30 N TCR.
Tarquini left the predecessor of the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR), the FIA WTCC, at the end of the 2016 season and spent much of last year working with Hyundai Motorsport to develop the new i30 N TCR.
Whilst that programme featured three events in TCR International and TCR Europe at the end of the season, Tarquini admits that not racing for much of the year was difficult for him, as he has raced touring cars for almost all of the past 25 years.
“I especially missed it last year when everybody started the season in WTCC and I was out testing the car, which we started testing in April last year,” said Tarquini to TouringCars.Net. “I missed the racing, and for me it’s very good to be back.”
Tarquini believes that the competition will be more open than at any other time in the past decade this year, with no car likely to stand head-and-shoulders above the competition, unlike in recent seasons of the WTCC.
“To be honest, we must go back probably 15 or 20 years to have a collection of drivers and teams like this, I’m impressed” added the 56-year-old. “Last year, in the TCR International series, the level wasn’t really high. It was good drivers and cars, but 50% of the grid was not at the same level.
“This year, on paper, you have 20 out of 25 drivers who can win the first race and probably fight for the championship, and that’s great because there is no car to beat, unlike in the WTCC where for the last four seasons it was Citroën, before that it was the Chevy and before that it was the SEAT.
“Here, at the moment, without BoP [Balance of Performance], because we don’t know the latest one, nobody knows who will be the driver or car to beat.”
Having won 63 major touring car races since 1993, Tarquini is keen to add more victories to his name in WTCR and be in the fight for the title at the end of the year.
“The memories I have from touring cars are very good for me – I have fought for the title many times and I finished three or four times in the top three.
“The target of our team is to win. I was involved in developing this car since the beginning and I am very pleased to join a full season now with BRC and I am very sure to make it happen.
“We know it will be very tough because the level of the competitors is incredible, but we are here to achieve the very top and be on pace at the very beginning. We will try to win races and play for the championship.”