Frédéric Vervisch: “We have the tool to win”

Frédéric Vervisch is back in the World Touring Car Cup after one year on the sidelines and believes that the new Audi RS 3 LMS has what it takes for him to challenge for victories in 2021.

“We have the tool to do very well and to win,” said Vervisch.

“I was off for one year and, of course, I have to put myself back into the rhythm, but everything feels great and we are sharing the testing with Nathanaël Berthon who has experience from last year. I have the feeling we are working very well together and I feel quite confident.”

Vervisch has been with Comtoyou Racing at Vallelunga in Italy this week as part of the development programme of the new race car.

“The Audi engineers have done a great job and the car is very reliable, which is almost impossible for a new car, and this is very promising,” said Vervisch.

“Reliability was one of our weaker points in the past so this is a huge improvement. We are still in the development phase of checking all the tools we have, all the equipment to make sure everything goes well, but so far it’s going really well.

“After the roll-out in Spain, Vallelunga is our second test. We’ve had rain and dry so we’ve already had mixed conditions and that’s helping us to learn a lot. We still have some tests planned so I look forward to a good start to the season.”

The Belgian driver raced for Comtoyou Team Audi Sport in the 2019 WTCR season, finishing 12th overall with two victories. A season that left him with a feeling of unfinished business.

“After 2019 I felt WTCR was unfinished business for me,” said Vervisch.

“I was hoping to drive again in 2020 but Audi was taking a different direction and it was not possible for me to drive in WTCR. I was a bit disappointed but this is part of life and I had other goals, so I focused more on GT3. But when it was known that Audi would develop a second-generation RS 3 LMS and they were interested in me, it’s a great honour and I hope we can do something great this year.”