Gabriele Tarquini on site at the Nürburgring to assist Thierry Neuville

Thierry Neuville is receiving input from reigning World Touring Car Cup champion Gabriele Tarquini, this in a bid to ease the WRC star’s temporary transition into the TCR Germany championship for this weekend’s Nürburgring round.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes after Friday practice, Neuville said Tarquini – one of the world’s most successful and experienced touring car drivers – was on site to help him adapt to the Hyundai i30 N TCR.

Tarquini has been driving the very same make of car in his own World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) exploits in 2018 and 2019, and also made a TCR Germany guest appearance of his own earlier this season at the Red Bull Ring.

“Gabriele Tarquini is helping me with the data this weekend,” Neuville said. “It is good. We were able to find a good set-up this morning. I was able to try some different things in some of the trickier corners, trying to carry a bit more speed. It was not always working but at least it helps me to understand where I can gain some time.”

The TCR Germany appearance marks Neuville’s first higher-level circuit racing event. The Belgian, currently third in the 2019 World Rally Championship, heads into the weekend having tested the i30 N TCR for two days; once at Spa-Francorchamps, and then during Thursday’s pre-event open test at the Nürburgring.

Neuville said his only other experience of circuit racing was “a couple of track days” and the recent Fun Cup 25 Hours race at Spa.

He impressed the paddock by setting the overall fastest time across Friday’s two free practice sessions at the Nürburgring Sprint track, but has set himself a modest target heading into Saturday’s qualifying showdown.

Asked to pinpoint the main differences between rallying and racing, Neuville replied:

“Everything! It’s a completely different driving style. The car is so different. We have 4×4 [in rallying], and the tyre is different because we have much harder sidewalls. The feedback you get through the steering is different. We have no roads that are this wide [referring to Nürburgring], not even Spain which is the widest rally of the season, even that is more narrow than here. The road [track] is clean all the time, you know exactly where to brake etc. You really can’t compare.”

Neuville ultimately thought of one area where the similarities between the two categories was at least tangible.

“You do have the feeling for the speed and the sliding, because TCR cars are quite nervous especially on the rear axle, so you need to have good car control. That’s probably helping from the rallying. The only thing which can be useful is the car control and the judgement of speed. That’s it.”