Honda confirm four driver squad

2010 champions Equipe Petrobras have confirmed their expanded line-up, with only Leonel Pernía staying on from ’09, with Juan Manuel Silva leaving the team, and champion Jose Maria Lopez bound for Formula 1 with USF1.

The other three drivers are Mariano Altuna, Néstor Girolami & Santiago Ventana.

Pernía snatched second place in the championship at the final round from team mate Juan Manuel Silva, and becomes the veteran in the squad with 1999 champion Silva’s departure. This will be Pernía’s fifth season in the championship driving the Honda Civic, and will be hoping to emulate the success of team mate Lopez, who has taken the title in the last two seasons.

Director Víctor Rubén Rosso said:
“We have been able to confirm our drivers for this year. The Petrobras car this season will have four cars driven by young drivers with a lot of experience in motorsport. After two extremely successful seasons in every sense, we will hope for Pernía, Altuna, Girolami & Ventana to follow on with that success”.

Technical director, Leonardo Monti, said:
“The cars were very competitive in the last race of 2009, and that is really comforting. In this break we will work on new developments which will serve to improve the performance for the first race of the year. This will be a very demanding season, and the team is very motivated to go for a third consecutive championship in TC2000”
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