Alain Menu says racing with Gabriele Tarquini will be interesting

Swiss driver Alain Menu will make his touring car return next weekend at the penultimate round of the TCR International Series at the Zhejiang circuit in China, debuting the all-new Hyundai i30 N TCR along with Gabriele Tarquini.

The Swiss driver’s last race was in early 2016, driving for WestCoast Racing during the one-day Imola race weekend, competing with the team’s Honda Civic Type R TCR, but due to the especially compact nature of the event, had little opportunity to adapt to the car.

“I said after that if I don’t get to test the car first, I’m not interested,” Menu told TouringCarTimes.

The 54-year-old had also been recruited by Top Run Motorsport to work on their Subaru WRX STi TCR in late 2015, but the Italian team did its development on track, to somewhat mixed results, with the car not even making it through one practice session at the Macau season finale.

“When Hyundai contacted me, I said I was interested, but told them the same thing. They said don’t worry, there’s a test coming up at Valencia,” he said.

With Menu pairing up with former BTCC and WTCC rival Gabriele Tarquini, one year his senior, Hyundai, with motorsport partners BRC Racing Team, are fielding one of the most experienced line-ups in China.

“In 25 years of racing, Gabriele and I have never been in the same team, so it’s very interesting. We’re both very different in terms of driving style, which is exactly what Hyundai need,” he explained.

“In the end, the programme is about selling race cars to customers, and they need to be able to be driven by anyone. On my first day, I asked where’s the foot rest? as the car didn’t have one. I said I need a foot rest, as I’m not suddenly going to start braking with my left foot after all this time, but Gabriele never noticed as he never thought any differently, so it’s this kind of experience that they’re after.”