Tarquini: “Fighting for the championship would be a dream”

Gabriele Tarquini will drive the new Honda Civic for the first time in an official event at Monza, unlike team-mate Tiago Monteiro who had a taste of the Japanese car in the last three races last year.

The Italian is happy to be back in a works team with a strong project, speaking to TouringCarTimes:

“I’ve been part of it ever since it all began. I think it is going to be a hard year but the expectations from both Jas and Honda are very high, so we’ll have to do something good throughout the year,” said Tarquini.

Tarquini is cautious to put himself among the favorites for the championship.

“We don’t know if we’ll be able to fight for the championship, so I wouldn’t be able to define what that ‘something good’ is. We’ll try to understand that based on the first races. Here it will probably be wet tomorrow, which will make it harder to understand the real performances. Of course the first race won’t be ideal for us; I’m particularly keen on doing well in Italy but unfortunately it’s the first race, our project is still very young, as are the car and the engine, so we’re not fully ready.”

The Italian insists that the championship is very open and that Honda will have to work hard to be able to fight for it straight away.

“As we’ve seen in the past, manufacturers such as Chevrolet or SEAT had to work for years before being competitive. We will try to shorten the time we need to get to the top. We improved compared to last year, our car is better, but we don’t know if that improvement is enough to fight for the title, we’ll have to assess is as the season goes on. Of course it would be a dream to fight for the title in our first year.”

The Italian also talked about his opponents and sees former team-mate Yvan Muller as the man to beat.

“I don’t think we are the car to beat. I still believe Yvan [Muller] and his Chevrolet will be the ones to beat. Although there is no more support from Chevrolet, the technical gap was huge last year and I think he will keep it, so that’s the car to beat.”

The Honda driver talked about World Champion Rob Huff, saying the Brit is in a similar situation as he was in the past few years.

“As for Huff, I’ve been in a similar situation in the last few years, except that Münnich Motorsport have the resources to do well in the championship. He has got an old car, I don’t know how they upgraded it, but it’s a car which can give him a few smiles during the season in some tracks, just like Monza. Last year I was quick here and even got pole. During the whole championship, though, he would need a great deal of luck to win the title.”

Tarquini considers Lada as a big question mark, as the car hasn’t raced against the others for many months.

“Lada could be a surprise. The car has been developed a lot, so nobody knows how close they will be and what their performances will be like. Dudukalo has a lot of experience now and Thompson is of course a great driver, but I can’t see him as one of the protagonists of the championship. He could be a race winner though.”

The Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team driver does not rule out possible surprises concerning the fight for the title this season.

“It’s a really open championship, of course Yvan is the favorite, but in our championship you can easily lose points along the way and the others can make up for the gap.
Last year it was practically impossible to fight for the championship, because there were three great drivers on the best car. Even if one had a problem, the other two would still be able to collect points.”

The Italian also praised the World Touring Car Championship. According to Tarquini the darkest moments are gone and the future looks brighter.

“In a moment of crisis like this one, the championship has restarted in a great way. We had a few tough years but now the enthusiasm is all around the championship. It would be very interesting to see Sebastian Loeb with Citroen, for instance, but anyway the series has a solid basis and has made it through the crisis because it has the right characteristics to work.”