Bamboo hoping to snatch title at Macau

bamboo-engineering goes to the season finale at Macau with a strong chance of winning the independents’ championship on their debut year in the WTCC. Team Principal Richard Coleman talks about the team’s chances.

Darryl O’Young goes into the final round just 21 points behind 2008 independents’ champion Sergio Hernández, with 43 to be had at Macau.

TcT: At the beginning of the year, would have thought it would have been possible to have won five races in the independents’ class in your debut WTCC season, and to be going in to the season finale with a real shot of the drivers’ trophy?

“Well on the whole it has been a competitive season, but 5 wins actually sells us short. Darryl was taken out of the lead from pole in Monza, was taken out the lead in Belgium, was harshly disqualified from race one in Brno and Darryl made an error in Germany again in the lead. Also I think Harry would have had wins had his season continued.”

“The reason I mention this negativity now is that it has made everyone very determined to win in Macau and hopefully take the championship, the team and drivers are very focused.”

TcT: What do you think Darryl’s chances are going into the final race, and what can you do to prepare for the cars first run at Macau?

“I think Darryl’s chances in Macau are extremely good, he has won there before in the GT category and knows the circuit very well indeed. The Lacetti last time out at Macau took pole and won both races, so we are confident we will be on the money in Macau. As for the championship we will go to Macau trying to score 43 points and hope the championship takes care of itself, that won’t be easy as Sergio has a good record there but Macau being Macau Sergio can ill afford to just circulate to get points. ”

“As for our preparations we have a pretty standard re-prep as Japan was kind to us damage wise, we cycle our parts so the cars will be tip top for the title push.”

TcT: Do you find yourself sympathising at all with Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner after that last race? It’d been more helpful for Darryl if Yuke had let him through for the class win in race one in Japan. How tempting was it to ask him to?

“I think that it would have been very difficult to switch the two, 1) Yuke was quicker it was only Coronel that backed him up 2) Darryl was only 2 seconds up on Sergio so that makes it difficult to make a switch 3) Being honest we encourage our drivers to race that has been our philosophy since day 1 our only rule is never take each other out.”

“As for any synergy with Red Bull It is only that we have given 40 points away one way or another, my job would have been a lot harder had Harry Vaulkhard still been in the Championship, although he had a poor final 2 races its clear he would have been top three in the championship then I may have had some sympathy with Christian.”