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Tom Coronel on Buenos Aires 200km: “I’ve no expectations”

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Tom Coronel will be the only non-South American driver taking part in this weekend’s endurance event of the Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship, driving for the privateer Escudería FE Peugeot team at the Buenos Aires 200km, and is looking forward to his adventure in the tough race.

Coronel ended his holiday early in the Dutch Carribean island of Curaçao to head to Buenos Aires, where he’ll take part in the race sharing the 420bhp, Radical V8-powered Peugeot 408 with Luciano Farroni this weekend, before heading north to Termas de Río Hondo for the next round of the World Touring Car Championship next weekend.

“Argentina is a beautiful country, with many nice places, and with many motorsport fans. I’ve made my hobby my work, so if I could stay a weekend at home or have a good race in Super TC 2000, it wasn’t difficult to say yes to Rubén Salerno (team owner).

“I’ve no expectations, to be honest. The car and the driver are usuallly around P10, their best result was an eighth place last round in Termas de Río Hondo. This gives us a good potential, still, we’re not an official team, we’re sub-official, but I’ll go always to the limit, and try to be as clever as possible. The cars have good power, good noise and the crowd has a big passion, let’s wait and see”

Since the last round, one of the big news stories in the WTCC is the announcement that two-time champion and former Super TC 2000 alumni José María López will be leaving the championship at the end of the year to join the Formula E championship, which

“Pechito (López) is a fast driver, and I understand he wants new challenges and adventures,” said Coronel. “If you win three championships, then what is your challenge? You only have to lose, no more to win. He’s commited and a clever driver. He could have taken the chance in Morocco when I won, but he didn’t take too many risks in order to protect his points. I knew that so I could be less risky too. This means he’s overall clever, not only fast.”

Interview by Francisco Aure