Photo: Lukoil Racing Team

Tarquini and Dudukalo confirmed for Lukoil Racing

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Gabriele Tarquini and Aleksei Dudukalo are going to take part in the FIA World Touring Car Championship 2012 for Lukoil Racing Team.
“I am very glad that LUKOIL confirmed me as one of their drivers, this was not guaranteed. Also, I am very proud to be selected to train the next generation of Russian drivers. Now I’m eager to start the next season,” said Tarquini.

The duo are going drive a pair of SEAT Leóns with a new 1.6 turbo engine and 2012 marks the second WTCC season for Russian driver Dudukalo.
“We will open the new season on better cars. I would like this to give us more chances to rise higher than last year. Then the main problem for us was the engine that has less power and reliability than those of our competitors. This time we will not have this problem, plus we can rely on better experience and technical support,” said Dudukalo.

The new 1.6 turbo charged petrol engine is going to be homologated by SEAT, in contrast to the engine used during 2011 that was homologated by SUNRED.
“Of course, we will use the same SEAT León cars, but I expect much from the new engine. In general, I think that we will be stronger than the year before, and our positions allow us to compete with Chevrolet,” said Tarquini.

The team is going to perform their first test of the season during the first days of February.