Next weekend, the 2007 World Touring Car Championship will kick off in the southern hemisphere, when teams and drivers reconvene for rounds one and two in Curitiba, Brazil. There will be plenty of new faces, new tracks and new rules for the teams to get under their belts. One of the novelties will be the rolling start for the first of the weekend’s two races, thus doing away with the relative advantage rear wheel drive cars had at standing starts. For the second race the standing start and the inverted grid remain as before.

There will also be new tracks to be sampled and learned. Former F1 tracks Anderstorp in Sweden and Zandvoort in Holland replace Istanbul (Turkey) and Puebla (Mexico) respectively, while Porto (Portugal) and Pau (France) are new venues. One thing has not changed, however, and that’s Chevrolet’s hunger for victories. In order to keep the momentum, Chevrolet is the only one of the works teams to keep the same drivers for the third year in succession, something which not only guarantees the continuity within the team, but is also a sign of confidence in the cars and team by the drivers.

Mark Busfield: “Well, we’re more prepared than we’ve ever been, and I’m sure it’s going to be an exciting season. The cars have now arrived in Brazil and the team will do so on Monday. As soon as everything is unloaded, we will add a few new things to the cars as a result from what we have learned at our recent Zandvoort test. For this season, there are quite a few changes to the rules which will add an element of strategy to the race weekends. The new race schedule has race 1 around midday and race 2 around 3.00pm. In between we still have the 15 minutes possible repair time as last year and cars will be in parc fermé for around two hours. However, should you need, you can keep working on a car instead of putting it in parc fermé, but you forfeit your grid place and have to start from the back of the grid. This is all very helpful when, for instance, you have some serious damage in race one and which might take more than the 15 minutes available to repair. Or you can change an engine if needed, something for which the penalty in any case is a 10-place setback on the grid. The obvious advantage to the series is that many more drivers will be able to start the second race, even if they had a severe incident in the first race. And while it might not bring any extra points for that particular driver, it will in any case bring more excitement to the spectators, both at the track and in front of the television.”

Alain Menu: “I can barely believe we are just a week away from the first race. I sometimes feel that Macau was only yesterday. The earlier start of the season this year and the huge amount of testing we’ve done since the finish of last season do of course give you the impression we haven’t had time off in between. That said, I’m anxious to find out where we stand. We’ve often tested with other teams at the same track, but you never know exactly where you stand until the moment the light goes green and the stopwatch starts running.”

Rob Huff: “I’m really looking forward to Curitiba. I had a good car there last year and with all the improvements we’ve made over winter we should be at the sharp end of the field.. We ran quick and reliable all winter so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t continue to do so in Brazil, even if we still have to introduce some new parts when we’re back in Europe. The rolling start will be the biggest change for us, drivers. It takes away the pressure of a standing start, but at the same time it adds some pressure because we will all be going into the first corner at a considerably higher speed. It will of course do away with the advantage of the rear wheel drive cars at the start, but it will also take away our own chances to make a superb standing start and gain a few places on other front wheel drive cars.”

Nicola Larini: “I am much more confident of having a great season than in the previous two years. We have all the ingredients to be among the front-runners. This impression is based both on the excellent form we reached at end of the last season and on the work we have done during winter. I am really pleased with the testing programme we have carried out. It has not only been intense, but very well organized, focused and detailed as well, and I think we have really moved things forward. I am really happy with some of the changes. I love the idea of rolling starts, for instance, and I am happy with the inclusion of three street events. I have always liked this kind of circuits, even though they entail some additional risks, but I think it is good for driving, for the sports and for the show. I think the season will be at least as open as last year. It is always difficult to make a prediction on the season-opener, as this is clearly the first time that all cars will compete together, but I believe we will be better off than last year. We did struggle a bit in Brazil last year, but I think we have understood the reasons why we had so much understeer and that we will be able to correct this.”

Eric Nève: “I feel the World Touring Car Championship is going from strength to strength. The manufacturers and the organisers are working well together to improve the status and the quality of the championship. We have exciting and top quality street courses like Pau and Porto added to the calendar according to the teams’ wishes, which shows that the teams are being listened to. Also, by going to street courses we take our race cars to their natural environment, while at the same time we bring the show to the spectators’ doorsteps. Rolling starts for the first race will bring even more close racing and the bigger gap in between the races allows us to have more cars on the grid of race two. As before, Chevrolet will use the fan-friendly atmosphere to invite many guests and media to the different races. While I hope that Chevrolet will be right there at the front of the field, one can already say for sure that the fans at home and at the tracks will in any case be the big winners in 2007.”


CURITIBA WTCC ON TV

The races will be broadcasted live on Eurosport.
CURITIBA RACE SCHEDULE

Friday, 9 March 2007

15.30-16.00 (19.30-20.00 CET) Testing

Saturday, 10 March 2007

09.00-09.30 (13.00-13.30 CET) Free Practice 1
12.00-12.30 (16.00-16.30 CET) Free Practice 2
15.00-15.30 (19.00-19.30 CET) Qualifying

Sunday, 11 March 2007

09.00-09.15 (13.00-13.15 CET) Warm up
12.20-12.45 (16.20-16.45 CET) Race 1 (14 laps=51.730kms) (Rolling start)
15.20-15.45 (19.20-19.45 CET) Race 2 (14 laps=51.730kms) (Standing start)