Fredy Barth targeting return for the 2012 WTCC

Swiss driver Fredy Barth wants to return for a third season in the WTCC for 2012, and wants to shake off the bad memories of the 2011 season, which ended with a high impact crash on the streets of Macau.

The 32-year-old Swiss driver endured a tough second season in the Championship with SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED, classified in 19th in the overall Championship in comparison with 13th in 2010.

This year, starting the year with the 2.0 litre SEAT TDI and switching to SUNRED’s new 1.6 litre turbo-petrol engine from Hungary, this year was more down than it was up, taking a best finish of eighth on his first outing in the SR León 1.6T at the Hungaroring.

“This year we had great pace from time to time, the first two races in Brazil and Zolder we were really fast,” said Barth to TouringCarTimes.

“Shanghai was more or less okay and (Macau) it felt great, in free practice we were really fast. Even in free practice 2 where I had the accident, if I put my ideal lap together my engineer told me I’d have been more than a second faster…so we would have been absolutely on the pace for fourth or fifth place behind the Chevrolets like Gabriele.”

Barth’s season ended before qualifying at Macau, crashing out in Friday qualifying and was knocked unconscious, with his foot stuck on the throttle causing the car to overheat and catch fire. Regardless of the damage to the car, Barth was out of the event after suffering a concussion.

“I hit the wall a little bit on the right side, and I don’t know know if it was because of the reaction of because of the wall I went to the left side but I can’t remember the impact. When I look at the car afterwards I understand why I can’t remember the impact… it was quite hard.”

“The whole seat has been moved by at least 10cm and I banged my head against the rollbar…they told me we were on the maximum of the G sensor.”

For 2012 there are set to be two teams running SEAT machinery on the grid, with British-based Special Tuning Racing joining the Championship with two Leóns powered by a new engine in development by SEAT Sport, and SUNRED, which ran all six full time SEAT entries this year, set to return as well with either their own engine or SEAT Sport’s.

“I don’t know what the relation(ship) is going to be between SEAT Sport and SUNRED as actually it’s a bit tense because of the engine situation. I’m waiting for SEAT Switzerland to see what they’re able to do…as we need certainly more budget. We need more budget for testing, for being able to prepare the car well and to have enough people around it.”

“For me, I absolutely want to do the Championship again, first of all I think I can do better than (this year) and second of all I don’t want to leave with a result of a year like this, I’d want to leave with a good memory and good results.”