TCR World and life

2021 was your first full season competing in a TCR series. What are your thoughts now that you’ve reached the end of the season? “It’s been a very interesting season, I have to say. I only drove a TCR car for the first time a year ago and we chose to run in TCR Eastern Europe as an ‘apprentice’ season. With me, I have my coach Andrea Fontana, who is a professional driver in the European Le Mans series – he and the team have helped me a lot. I knew I had to make improvements; I made a lot of mistakes, but I had a lot of satisfaction from the year. At the end of the season, I took third position in Qualifying at the Slovakiaring and I was fighting for the win at the last race at Brno. I also went to Monza with the Coppa Italia Turismo; we were second before an accident and we led Race 1 until we had a technical problem with the car. So, overall it’s been a difficult season because it was our first but I think I grew during the year and so I came to compete in TCR Europe’s last round in Barcelona to understand where I am compared to the other drivers.” Have you made any firm decision as to where you’d like to be next year? “It’s very difficult right now, because we need to see the budget with my sponsor and we need to see the calendar. TCR Europe is the dream for me, but maybe it’s a little too soon. We will decide in the upcoming weeks if TCR Europe is right for me or not. If not, I think we could continue next year in TCR Eastern Europe, to try to achieve a victory or at least a podium, or maybe go to TCR Italy because we know that the level is very high – it would be a good ‘school’ for me.” Away from motorsport, your company is involved with green technology. What are your thoughts about ETCR and the future of electric motor racing? “It’s very important, because my life other than racing is completely about renewable energy and sustainability. For me, the transition from petrol cars to electric cars is very important. ETCR offers very good racing; I followed PURE ETCR this year and I think the future is very interesting. For now, it’s very expensive but if this category becomes more accessible, for us it will be possible to go to ETCR because for me and my company it will be very important to be in this kind of motor racing. Now, in Italy, we have to race in the Italian category ASTC for electric cars and so for me working in renewable technology but racing in petrol- engined cars is a step towards the time when I can race in an electric TCR car. For me, the empowerment of working and racing with green energy would be perfect.” Three questions to… Giacomo Ghermandi Italian entrepreneur Giacomo Ghermandi is a newcomer in TCR competition, but in his maiden season he showed he has enough passion and skill to aim for good results in the near future. On top of this, as his company works in the field of renewable energy and sustainability, he keeps an attentive eye to the ETCR.