Interview with SEAT Sport-boss on the future

SEAT pulled their official support from the FIA World Touring Car Championship after the 2009 season. Although the Spanish manufacturer is still very much present in the WTCC 2010 with Gabriele Tarquini, driving for the semi-official team SR-Sport, as one of the title contenders. TouringCarTimes caught up with SEAT Sport boss Jamie Puig.

TcT: What are the services that SEAT Sport is offering this season to it’s customer teams?

We are still involved in customer support activities with the SEAT León Eurocup and SEAT León Supercopa. In addition to that we give support for our SEAT León S2000 car to our customers in national championships like in STCC/DTC and in the WTCC.

SEAT Sport is sending a support truck to every WTCC race so that our customers don’t need to bring all parts on their own to the race track. We are offering support for the petrol and the diesel engine powered León. The service for the diesel isn’t much bigger then for the petrol engine, it depends on where our customers want to race like in national championships or in the World Championship.

All of our customers in WTCC are running a diesel powered León so it is easier for us to have the right spare parts available in our service truck.

We are also offering SEAT Sport engineers and mechanics to help them to handle the car. In the last couple of years we’ve earned a lot of experiences with the León and it is part of our service to offer this experience to our customers.

At a WTCC race three engineers and five mechanics are supporting the customer teams plus 12 people who are working for the Seat León Eurocup. Me and our Team Manager, Antonio Rodriguez, are in charge of all organizational issues. In addition to that another part of my responsibilities is to talk to stay in contact with our competitors and to series promoter Marcello Lotti. To sum up, 40 people are still working for SEAT Sport but they aren’t only working for WTCC or the León Cup car.

We are preparing special cars for SEAT and we are preparing the intervention car for the WRC event at Rally Catalunya at the moment. So times are different but we still have a lot to do.

TcT: Is it difficult to put a diesel engine into what was a petrol specification car?

The teams are able to put in the engine on their own. They need an update package and our introduction plan. It’s quite a lot to change but the main parts are the engine and the gearbox.

Only our customer teams in WTCC are using the diesel engine. In other national championships the teams are only using the petrol engine. We give them our best support. In Sweden we are working very close with the Ekström Team and our chief engineer Xavier Serra is supporting them on punctual occasions on track.

TcT: Is there still a development programme for the S2000 Seat León?

The rules don’t allow you to do so many things. We didn’t do anything on the engine compared to last year. The customer teams have a limited budget, this means that they are not able to organize so many testings like we did as a factory team.

We are able to build new cars for customers which are all at the same level. It is amazing to see that the SEAT TDI is still able to fight for the top. Our customer teams are driving nearly the same car like the BMW teams are using in the independent trophy. Most of the BMWs in the independent trophy are former works-cars. Our customer teams are also using our former works-cars and are still able to fight for the top.

TcT: How come the S2000 León still so competitive?

We did a lot of testing in the last couple of years. Last year, for example, we had 20 days. It sounds not much but its still quite a lot. Doing so, we achieved some good improvements on the suspension and made the car stronger on kerbs. All these improvements are being offered to our customer teams.

Last year the car was on a very high level and it was highly developed and we won the world championship title with Gabriele Tarquini. The other important thing is that three of our five former works drivers are still driving their former factory cars. They know the car very well and also the tracks with their special set-ups. That is a big help for the teams and makes it easier to find the right setup for each track.

The rest of the improvements isn’t in our hands. The engine does not need any testing as it is on the same level and for other testing we don’t have any resources. Last year we had five TDI powered works cars and three test cars. Now there are seven TDI powered race cars on the grid. That shows that our customers have a lot of confidence in us which makes us very happy.

TcT: Do you still have the resources to build a new car?

The resources and the facilities to develop a new car still exist and SEAT Sport still has great and talented staff. But we don’t have a development programme at the moment.

TcT: Are you developing the new world engine for WTCC?

No, we are currently not developing the new world engine but if we would definitely follow the strategy of the Volkswagen Group.

TcT: Do you think that the whole argument around the diesel engine damaged the image of WTCC?

I don’t think that it damaged the image of WTCC. And now that the FIA took the decision to close the bureau and continue working with the commission everything is going fine. These are professional people who are on grid at every race weekend to understand the whole situation.

Now that the FIA introduced article 79, where they’ve fixed the success ballast, we even don’t have any weight discussions. The actual major problem is that an old car is faster than a new car (BMW 320si facelift compare to older version). Don’t understand me wrong, I’m not at all against BMW, but we and Chevrolet homologated our two models and if BMW would do this too we wouldn’t have this discussion.

TcT: After SEAT left WTCC, what do you think about the future and the current situation?

First I don’t think WTCC will die. WTCC is a strong championship and it is the only World Championship for Touring Cars. We have races all over the world and Marcello Lotti is working hard to introduce new races in other countries and continents like in USA. In addition to that WTCC is the only championship where 11 or 12 drivers are able to fight for the race win. Which championship can offer this action?

The new rules are also a positive step for the championship, that’s why all the manufacturers are still here.
We all knew that 2010 would be a difficult year and also next year will be difficult but with the new rules it will be more interesting for new manufacturers to enter WTCC in 2012.

TcT: What do you think about hybrid technology in Touring Cars?

The FIA has to be very fast in this area. Manufacturers are interested in testing new technologies. I wouldn’t say that only hybrid technology must be the goal for the future, the Swedish championship allows running biogas powered cars and they were also the first who introduced bio-ethanol petrol.

Also SEAT made WTCC a bit cleaner with the diesel engine. To introduce the diesel was a revolution with big problems. I’ve asked the FIA at the beginning of the year about biogas because in our company (Volkswagen Group) we using this technology.

They really have to check their options very carefully. If they would allow new technologies they really have to take care about the rules. The technical specifications of the different types of technology should be on the same level so that a manufacturer won’t be penalized for his special concept. The cars in WTCC are very close to the standard cars and this is the big chance for the manufacturers to test and to show their technologies to their customers in the future.