Even with several drivers involved in the initial accident that caused a red flag stoppage just seconds into the second race at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben last weekend, James Nash still has a lot of motivation, thanks to team mate Daniel Lloyd, who was able to get the best out of the weekend.
“It’s always good with a driver like Dan coming on board, as he’s a quick guy,” said Nash to TouringCars.Net. “He’s got a lot of touring car history and it’s only positive to have another quick driver in the team.
“It drives us all forward, and helps to develop the car quicker and better. The BoP changes helped us a little bit, but it’s also helped the others as well.”
Nash also felt that the characteristics of the 3.667-km circuit suited the Léons a lot better than some of the other tracks that are coming up on the calendar, including that of the Buriram International Circuit.
“We do feel a bit more nimble, and this track suits our car a little bit more. Shorter straights mean that we don’t hit sixth gear, so we’ll see what happens when we hit Thailand,” explained the 31-year-old, who was disappointed after Oschersleben, which saw the Briton only score 12 points in race one.
“We’ll be quite good at difficult corners that tighten up on themselves, which seems to suit our car, and the Formula One tracks, they’re not normally like that.
“Bahrain was good for us, as the straights weren’t so long, but we’ll keep fighting together, and collect points. But it is a disappointment that Oschersleben wasn’t much better.”
However, in respect of the start line incident that saw him being eliminated, he only had one driver in mind, who he felt was responsible for four teams requiring to make essential repairs before the cars are shipped to Thailand this weekend.
“I realised Colciago was closing that gap off quite quickly, so I went to the other side of Vernay where there was a nice gap,” said the Milton Keynes-based driver on the official TCR International Series streaming feed post-incident.
“I just carried on and used the speed that I had from my launch, and all of a sudden I got a big hit from behind on the rear quarter, which sent me across the track.
“I’ve just re-watched the video and it’s quite clear that Colciago just keeps moving across onto Vernay. I don’t know where he wanted to go, but I place full blame on Colciago for that.”