Gabriele Tarquini says new engine has great potential

2009 champion Gabriele Tarquini was the closest driver to the works Chevrolets after the first day of testing with the new SEAT León WTCC, fitted with a 1.6 litre turbocharged engine.

The Italian’s best time was 0.621 down on the best from Yvan Muller, with the Lukoil Racing Team driver finding another 1.8 seconds in the final hour of testing.

“We lost the morning with trouble, it was a shake down of the car as the car is brand new,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes.

“The engine we’re running with different electronics (to the Valencia test). We have the final version of the electronics, something was not perfect but we improved the engine, we improved everything and in the end it was quite good.”

Compared to last year’s SUNRED developed engine, which is no longer being used by any of the teams, Tarquini believes the engine resolves a number of issues.

“The car is more or less the same, it’s not very different but the engine is completely different. It’s more pointed to drivability than power. Maybe it’s not the best track here for our engine at the moment, but it’s still good and has great potential. We need kilometers and experience and also I need more time, everything’s completely new, the people and the team.”

Lukoil Racing Team are running with the new engine in both of their cars for Tarquini and Aleksei Dudukalo, though Dudukalo’s car suffered with electronics issues throughout the day, with the Russian setting the 23rd fastest time of the 23 WTCC entries taking part in the sessions.

Darryl O’Young at Special Tuning Racing and Pepe Oriola at Tuenti Racing Team also have the new SEAT 1.6 turbo engine, with Darryl 15th quickest overall and Oriola 18th.

SUNRED’s other drivers Tiago Monteiro, Andrea Barlesi and Fernando Monje are all running with the SEAT 2.0 litre turbo-diesel engine. Monteiro was 11th fastest, Barlesi 17th, whilst Monje was the quickest of the drivers entered for this weekend’s European Touring Car Cup.