Gabriele Tarquini wants to be back on the grid with Honda in 2016

Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini wants to be back on the grid with the Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team in 2016, and expects the developments that are coming will help the team close the gap to Citroën for next season.

“I want to race again next year,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes. “If Honda let me race…I definitely want to race one more year. I’m not happy with the overall performance we’ve achieved in these last two seasons, so I don’t want to give up at this moment, as I think we will improve the overall performance and I think I can help.

The 53-year-old finished fifth overall in the standings this year, the closest challenger to the four Citroëns, and says at this point his career he decides on a year-by-year basis whether he wants to continue.

“In the last few seasons I always sign one year contracts, as I want to decide at the end of the season what’s best for me and for the manufacturer. If I sign, I’ll sign for one more season and at the end of the year we’ll decide again. This is also my suggestion as at some point during the next three, five or ten seasons I will decide to stop!”

The Italian is disappointed on the whole with the season, and says there’s still work to be done in order to take the fight to Citroën in the French manufacturer’s last year in the championship, and with new competition from Polestar joining the WTCC next year as well.

“It was not a fantastic season. The overall performance in terms of the car was quite satisfactory as we are closing the gap to Citroën. Even with 40kg we proved we could be the closest car to Citroën, OK in Qatar some cars are a little bit faster than us but they’re on 0kg this weekend,” he added.

“We were closing the gap, but we still need to work if we want to beat them, they are the car to beat and the gap’s still there.”