Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente set to join Catsburg in revised Lada line-up

TouringCarTimes understands that Honda refugee Gabriele Tarquini and former Campos Racing driver Hugo Valente are set to join Nicky Catsburg at Lada Sport for 2016, with a dramatic change in driver line-up for the team which featured much rotation during 2015.

2009 WTCC champion Tarquini was dropped from Honda’s 2016 line-up last month, and it now seems the 53-year-old is set to effectively swap places with 2012 champion Rob Huff, with the latter believed to be set to join Honda for next season, although no announcement has yet been made by either Huff or Honda.

It’s also believed that 23-year-old Hugo Valente will switch from a privateer drive to a factory deal with Lada, after much promising pace shown during the 2015 season, although the Frenchman is yet to win a race in the WTCC.

Valente said he’s unable to comment on his plans for 2016, other than to say to TouringCarTimes things for this year are “looking better than they were a few weeks ago”. Valente was understood to be approaching teams in the TCR International Series for next year until the WTCC driver market opened up following Tarquini’s departure from Honda.

After a strong debut in the WTCC in the last half of the 2015 with Lada, Dutch driver Nicky Catsburg is also set to be retained by the Russian marque, where he’ll combine his Lada touring car programme with GT racing, driving for Black Swan Racing in the USA-based United SportsCar Championship.

Lada’s potential line-up for 2016 is already loaded with intrigue, as Tarquini and Valente had the most memorable off-track spat during 2015, with the Frenchman challenging Tarquini on his way to the podium in Shanghai after a first lap incident while fighting for the lead. Valente was quick to praise Tarquini following Honda’s announcement in December that he was to leave the team.