Daniel Nagy says his 2018 TCR Europe campaign with M1RA has given him back ‘the feeling of why I started racing’ after a difficult spell in the now-defunct World Touring Car Championship.
Nagy’s partnership with the Hungarian outfit has yielded a single race victory at Assen amid five podiums, and the Hyundai i30 N TCR racer arrives at Circuit de Catalunya with an outside chance of being crowned Champion.
However, he currently sits 50 points adrift of standings leader Mikel Azcona with a maximum score of 55 available at the 2.8 mile Catalan circuit during the season-concluding double header this weekend.
That follows a difficult two-year tenure in the WTCC, with just a solitary point to show for 30 race starts with Zengo Motorsport in a Honda Civic.
“This weekend could be important for my future,” admitted Nagy to TouringCars.net
“I was missing some performance on my qualifying so I am concentrating on this, having my mind clear and do a good qualifying because this is the key and what I was missing during the year.”
“I don’t know what I am doing next year but I would be really happy to stay at M1RA because I feel very good and I have learnt a lot this year. They have given me back the feeling of why I started racing to be honest, after two really hard years in the WTCC.
“I really like the team, they are professional and they give me the chance to improve, so Hyundai and M1RA are my best option.”
Reflecting on his work during the opening free practice, Nagy underlined the importance of learning the circuit on his first visit, but bemoaned the red flag and traffic for scuppering some of his efforts.
“For me of course, the main thing was to learn the circuit because this was the first time for me to be here. Of course, the red flag was not great because we lost some time, but overall I was satisfied with the learning procedure.
“I was always blocked on my quick laps so I could have been much faster which gives me confidence, but a lot of work for FP2.
“With the Hyundai, it feels good. It’s a little bit easier to learn the new tracks compared to the cars I was driving in the past. Of course the most important part is to find the braking points and then the balance of the car at the entry.
“You have to decide the entry speed of the corners and then arrive when you feel you need to – you are usually on the edge of the grip level. Then you can work with the car so it’s important to get that feeling in every corner because from that point you can develop the setup for the weekend.”
He also reflected on a ‘rollercoaster’ of a campaign and believes the key to this weekend is to finish on a high in terms of results, and learn as much as possible from stand-in team-mate and FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) front-runner Norbert Michelisz.
“It’s [been] a big rollercoaster for me in the last few races. I achieved three consecutive podiums and then I had a mechanical issue in Assen and made a mistake in qualifying at Monza. That made our championship challenge more difficult, but we are still able to win in and I am just focused on a good result and learn off Norbi this weekend.”
The second practice session gets underway at 16:05 CEST.