Jean-Karl Vernay: “We need more time with the car”

Team WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay picked up six points towards his World Touring Car Cup title bid with eighth in Race 1 in Hungary, but the reigning TCR International Series champion says they need more time to understand and make the most out of the Audi RS 3 LMS.

Vernay was the best-placed of the six Audis on the grid, qualifying in 11th and going on to finish in eighth in the race, during which a highlight was passing last year’s WTCC drivers’ champion Thed Björk’s Hyundai at Turn 2 on lap four.

“I really enjoyed that,” said Vernay to TouringCarTimes. “I don’t know what happened to Thed, as suddenly his rhythm went down, so I thought if I could close the gap in the last sector I might try something, as our top speed is not bad; it was a good move.

“My first lap was really cool, but our only opportunity to score points was to overtake a few cars during the first part of the race as we knew we were going to struggle with the brakes, as we are really far away performance-wise this weekend,” he added.

“Last year (Audi drivers) Stefano (Comini) and (Frédéric) Vervisch were also nowhere here. There are a lot of long corners, and the there’s also a lot of weight in the car, and the long wheelbase doesn’t help either. I’m really convinced about the potential of the car, we just need to learn it.”

Vernay admits that the Balance of Performance was a factor, but not all of the problem for the team this weekend.

“The BoP isn’t going our way, so it’s a bit of that as well, and a bit of us. I think we’re doing well when we compare ourselves to Comtoyou with their one year of experience, but it’s not enough to fight for the title, which is the one thing I want.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s races, Vernay says it will be tall order to repeat the results from Morocco three weeks’ ago when he was able to win the reversed top ten grid race after he qualified ninth considering the pace of the other cars this weekend.

“There are plenty of Hondas and Hyundais which are very quick, and I don’t think the Hyundais were pushing too hard in the race either. So with five Hyundais, plus six Hondas, that’s 11 cars, that makes getting into the top ten very difficult.”