TCR World and life

After a one-year break you are coming back to racing in Touring Car competition, but with a completely different car. Are you excited? “It’s a big challenge and I love it. We started from scratch with something that is completely new. Not only for me, but also for the team and we have worked together to develop everything – the chassis, the software and all the components of the ETCR kit – and create something very unique. I feel like I’m back at school, because I’m literally learning a new style of racing from zero and I feel like I have a new role that is midway between that of the driver and the engineer. This first season is going to be a race-by-race learning process, for everybody – drivers, teams, promoters, officials – while we are inventing a brand new style of motorsport. This car is a mixture of Touring Car and GT and changes a lot according to the power that is applied. From 300KW to 500KW it changes completely, it is really demanding for the driver, but it also makes the driving very exciting. I can say that when you drive with the 500KW map, the performance is impressive, and acceleration becomes brutal. This will show the fans that electric cars can be extremely nice to drive, fun and superfast!” A brand new category that will adopt a brand new format. What do you think of the way the PURE ETCR events will be shaped? “I can understand the idea behind the new format. We do motorsport because people like watching the competition. So, we need to provide a good show to make the fans happy and with the traditional formats, sometimes the show is put in the shade. This new format is conceived to integrate the sporting competition with a thrilling show and I’m sure the fans will like it because they will see very short races that with the use of the push-to-pass will result in pure speed. I can’t say there will be no strategies, but their importance will be limited. We’ll sprint out of the starting gates at full speed, heading for the first turn, and this will be red-hot! The goal is to keep people excited during these battles of seven/ten minutes, so that they can really enjoy what they see.” Besides this, you are involved in another new adventure - the owner of a team that will race in TCR South America. What are your expectations? “From the moment I knew that there would be a TCR South America I wanted to take part with my own team, because it’s a great opportunity to support motorsport in the region. I really believe in the TCR platform; it is very cost- efficient, the cars deliver a good show, they are fun to drive and affordable, and it’s a racing form than can be linked to manufacturers. So, I used my connection with Hyundai Motorsport to set up a programme and ours was one of the first customer teams to take delivery of the Elantra N TCR cars, even before the WTCR teams. This made it possible to ship the cars to Brazil in time for the testing. It is not easy for me to manage the project because I live in Europe, but I can count on two very good friends of mine: my co-owner Sérgio Jimenez and Nelson Piquet Jr. who will run the cars with his own Piquet Sports team. We have established a high-level structure and we are aiming to win the championship!” Three questions to… Augusto Farfus From the very start of Hyundai Motorsport’s programme to develop the Veloster N ETCR, Augusto Farfus is the driver who has been most involved in the car’s testing programme. Recently the Brazilian was named as one of the four drivers who will represent Hyundai in the inaugural season of the new PURE ETCR series.