Gabriele Tarquini unsure of next year’s plans

2009 World Touring Car Champion Gabriele Tarquini is uncertain where he’ll be in 2012 after a tough season with SUNRED, finishing fifth in the Championship standings. The Italian looked set to join Volvo, but now it appears as though the Swedish marque may not be returning next year.

The 49-year-old Italian took a win for SUNRED early in the season in April, holding off Alain Menu’s Chevrolet at Zolder to take victory in race two from pole position on the reversed grid.

Four further podium finishes followed with the team’s new 1.6 litre turbo engine, with Tarquini finishing fifth in the Championship on 204 points, 229 points down on series champion and former team-mate Yvan Muller.

Tarquini also joined Volvo Polestar Racing for two rounds of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship in August, igniting rumours the former champion was set to join Robert Dahlgren in a full programme with the Swedish manufacturer next season with the team’s new 1.6 turbo-powered Volvo C30, but the Italian believes that opportunity has now gone.

“Volvo had a great potential, the chassis is very good, the engine is very good and for me it was the best chance to fight with Chevrolet,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes.

“We (were quite near to agreeing) to do the season, but something happened on their side, the plan was stopped and they stopped talking with me, and I don’t know what’s the future.”

“I’m talking with Ford. I don’t know the level of the team, I don’t know the level of the car, I never saw (current) BTCC before. The team will be new in the WTCC, everything will be new. I don’t think that the car will be competitive from the first race. They need maybe a half season to develop.”

Tarquini has been racing in SEATs since the 2006 season, when the Spanish marque switched to the then-new León and ran a six-car assault on the Championship with an all star line-up, though for the last two years he’s competed with the independent SUNRED team after SEAT Sport withdrew.

SEAT are now planning a return next year as a customer support team with a new engine, but the Italian is sceptical of the seven-year old León’s capabilities.

“Maybe if SEAT Sport comes as a customer team, I have a better chance to fight, but (the current León) is quite old, I don’t think that with this car that we can beat the Chevy.”

“I don’t know the potential of the Volkswagen engine, maybe it’s better than (the SUNRED) one. To be honest, I was really surprised as to how good the (SUNRED) engine was compared with the money they spent and the time they had to build this engine, but we need development. The engine we used in Macau was the same step we used in Budapest for the first time, so there’s been no development at all since the first run. You need a lot of money to develop an engine.”

“To fight, I need motivation…I’m not very young…I think I’m as fast as two years ago, but if I’m fighting another year for fifth or sixth position, and maybe next year there will be another two or three Chevrolets, it’ll be the fight for seventh of eighth instead, and this doesn’t interest me any longer,” said Tarquini.