TCR World and life

3 SPOTLIGHT Gabriele Tarquini, arguably one of the most successful and respected Touring Car drivers of all time, brought his incomparable career to an end after the final event of the WTCR, at Sochi, where he was rendered the honours from competitors and personnel as he paraded along the pit lane. “I took this decision after my victory at Aragón in July,” he says. “It was not an easy call, but sooner or later I had to stop. Nothing lasts forever, not even my career! And I can’t regret anything. Someone could say: you stopped too early; you could do one more year. You can always do one more year, but I was lucky enough because I had a very long career and very rewarding, even in the later years.” Tarquini’s racing career began at the age of 10, in the 125cc regional karting championship. After being crowned Italian champion three times, European champion once and having won the Class C World Championship in 1984, he switched from karting to car racing, TouringCar legendGabrieleTarquini leavesthestage arrived at a time when most of the drivers of my generation had already retired. Which is why I savoured them so much. More than when I was younger, focusing on the future and the next goals. I thought my 2009 WTCC title would have been the last one, instead I won WTCR nine years later and was still able to win races until the end… I have really enjoyed those last few years, as I was more relaxed and had no ambitions to build a career, like the younger people have.” Would this be the end of Tarquini’s involvement in motorsport? “For now, I have no plans, and I will take some time to wait and see what happens around me. Since I have informed Hyundai, we are talking to see if there is an opportunity to keep on working together in some ways. I would like to stay in motorsport, and I am confident that I won’t be short of opportunities. In all those years I have made a lot of friends and built a solid reputation, as a driver, but also as a person.” going through F3 and F3000 before landing in F1 where he took part in 78 events over seven seasons. His outstanding Touring Car career began in the 1987 World Championship with an Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo and continued until today, totalling nearly 700 races at the wheel of BMW, Alfa Romeo, Honda, SEAT, LADA and Hyundai cars. The peaks of this amazing adventure were the titles in the 1994 British Touring Car Championship and the 2003 FIA European Touring Car Championship with Alfa Romeo and those in the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship for SEAT and in the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup for Hyundai. Tarquini became World Champion at the age of 47, World Cup winner at the age of 56 and claimed his most recent victory this year at Aragón in WTCR at the age of 59, setting a series of records as the oldest champion and race winner in FIA history. “The two world titles in 2009 and 2018