Hugo Valente enjoying the new team environment at Craft-Bamboo

New Craft-Bamboo recruit Hugo Valente is settling into his new team in the TCR International Series, and says he’s finding it a more comfortable environment than his last WTCC outing at Lada, but knows that it’ll be a tough and competitive year alongside Pepe Oriola and James Nash.

The Frenchman missed out on much of Free Practice 1 after the team had a bleed the brakes on his SEAT León TCR, leaving him with just two timed laps in which he ended up fifth fastest, and was then eighth in the second practice session.

The 24-year-old is making the switch from the WTCC to TCR this year, adapting to the SEAT León TCR after a year behind the wheel of the Lada Sport-run Vesta TC1.

“I wouldn’t say I like it better, as the cars are faster in WTCC and have more grip, but the tyres make a big difference here,” said Valente to TouringCarTimes, referring to the hard compound Michelins. “You can actually push the whole race, not have to back off and be patient after three laps to save the tyres; so as a racing driver it’s a nicer feeling to know you can push every lap and be at the limit.

“The cars are actually quite fun to drive, obviously there’s a lot less horsepower, but the handling is nice, and the competition is close, that’s what I like about it. In WTCC there was so much difference between all the cars, but yesterday the most of the top ten here were within four-tenths.”

The team have arguably the strongest line-up on the grid, with Valente joining Nash and Oriola, who both have had strong runs at the title in the last two years.

After racing alongside Gabriele Tarquini and Nicky Catsburg at Lada in 2016, Valente says the situation at the UK-based team feels very different to that of the Russian squad.

“I’m putting (last year) behind me,” said Valente. “I learned a lot from Nicky and Gabriele, but the situation in the team, not my team-mates, was not ideal.

“While here, it’s awesome; everyone speaks English, so we can actually communicate with the engineers and the mechanics and everyone else. I’ve known Pepe for a while and James is a nice kid as well, so it’s a good atmosphere. I don’t know how long that’s going to stay between the three of us, but there’s mutual respect between the drivers. I think the two team managers know it’ll heat up at some point, but as long as we don’t crash each other out and we work together, it’ll be good.”