Fredy Barth enjoying his learning year

Fredy Barth is currently top of the new SEAT drivers this year, leading the rookie challenge and in the top 10 in points. Fredy tells us about his last minute battle to make the grid, and how he’s approaching his first season in the WTCC.

Barth finished third in last year’s SEAT León Eurocup Championship, behind Tim Coronel and champion Norbert Michelisz.

Both Michelisz and Barth have joined the scaled down SEAT driving ranks this season, along with two time Danish Touring Car champion Michel Nykaer, but after three races, Barth has a healthy lead in both the new rookie challenge and the overall drivers championship with 32 points, just behind Chevrolet’s Alain Menu in the standings.

Barth very nearly didn’t make the grid in Brazil, as he explains:
“The cars were confirmed to compete from the middle of January, but it was not sure who was going to drive…they were many movements” explained Fredy to TouringCarTimes

“There was a car which was officially allocated to Jordi Gené, but it was not confirmed that he was definitely going to drive – and it looked for a long time that he was not going to… and actually that was going to be my car – then at the last minute they found a deal to drive anyway which meant I wasn’t in”

“One of my sponsors was a bit upset by this – and he wanted me there – so on the Thursday the week before the race in Brazil, we decided to bring the seventh car that SEAT Sport owns for testing.”

“We then had to organise the car, all the equipment, the mechanics, engineers, the flight, the transport…they had to prepare overnight all the lists for customs and so on, so this was quite exciting – and then by phone, all the deals with the sponsors – it was quite busy so I didn’t have time to get nervous.”

The SUNRED Engineering SEAT at Morocco

Now after three races, Fredy leads the newly created Rookie Challenge, with four out of six possible wins, Fredy explains however why he’s not focusing on this:

“With the rookie challenge, it’s always a bit difficult to judge, it came at the last minute as we not allowed into the independents championship – so they looked for a new facility to get some money from the pot for us (SUNRED & Zengo-Dension).”

“I’ve not really been thinking about the Rookie Challenge championship, and somehow I’m still not really interested…it’s for the beginners, but some of the beginners like Bennani, who was driving last year, Michelisz has also already been driving last year & Nykjaer has been driving many years in S2000 cars – so this rookie thing is somehow a little bit false.”

“For me, the point was just not being in the independents means I have to measure myself against the best of the world, so the only thing that counts is the results compared to them; “am I going to be able to be in the top few cars or not?” – from that point of view, I thought it’s going to be very difficult.”

“Luckily I’m happily surprised I could deal quite well with it – I was never the last of the SEAT’s – I was never really far behind, in the beginning it was a little bit more difficult because I didn’t have any tests…but then I was very satisfied with the progression and started to feel comfortable with the car, I think it also shows in the race lap times, and qualifying.”

TcT: This is also your first year driving a diesel race car, how are you finding it?

“I heard so many statements from people who were driving a diesel…so I was not really surprised, but I still had to learn a lot – how to throttle with the engine, with the turbo, with the diesel – which is quite different.”

“The whole car with small tyres has a completely different grip level than the Supercopa cars – where we were driving with 265 on 18” wheels – so I really had to learn how to use the turbo with the grip level – so there were many new things.”

“It’s not only the engine, I think the engine is really a powerful engine. It feels quite slow, you sit in the car and you don’t hear anything and you’re just fast, and faster than the others. I mean, when you’re overtaking a petrol car, you almost don’t hear your own engine anymore, but you’re just faster – which is quite funny.”

Fredy Barth, mastering the kerbs at Monza

Fredy Barth is out to gain whatever he can from the squad of experience team mates he has at SEAT this year. When asked who he’s treating as his benchmarks this year, the first name he says is Tarquini, but then explains:

“Gabriele Tarquini is a great driver, okay I don’t think that I will just come and beat him, but with Tarquini I have the best team mate I can have, as I couldn’t learn more from anyone else.”

“I try to understand what he’s doing, how he’s working with the car, how he’s driving – and for me and then this will be the benchmark. My goal is to do several years of WTCC – and if I didn’t have big ambitions I wouldn’t be a race driver, I wouldn’t have come so far – so my goal is to maybe someday be able to fight for the world championship – so I’m trying to focus on that.”

TcT: What would be your ideal acheivement to walk away from the end of 2010 with in the WTCC?

“Like I said before, if I didn’t dream of big goals, I wouldn’t be here where I am, on the other hand it’s a World Championship…the drivers at the front they’ve all won different championships, they’re really on the top of the world, so if I say I’d like to win a race maybe it’s almost arrogant, but in the other way I dream of that, I’m working for that.

“…but what’s important for me is by the end of the year to be able to say to myself I have done the best possible, not too many mistakes, made good progress during the season – and show that I’m a good driver and have shown strong performance.”