TCR Europe’s two touring car rookies star on first day in series
Viktor Andersson and Kobe Pauwels have no touring car racing experience between them, but the two teenagers have both already impressed on the opening day of the TCR Europe opener.
Andersson has arrived in the paddock with his father’s MA:GP team after racing in single-seater cars since 2018, while Pauwels has landed a plum seat at TCR Europe’s reigning champion team Comtoyou Racing in an Audi RS 3 LMS II TCR after winning the Euro RX3 title in rallycross last year.
Pauwels was sixth fastest in practice at Algarve on Friday after topping the second session, while Andersson was eighth fastest overall in his father’s Lynk & Co 03 TCR after making the top six in practice one.
“Prior to yesterday [for the pre-event test I think we’ve done around 1,000 kilometres in the car,” Andersson said to TouringCarTimes.
“We actually did a few test days here in southern Europe. We were at Barcelona and Spa-Francorchamps, for example. But still, coming from go-karts and then four seasons in single-seaters, this is a step in another direction . It’s a much heavier car, so it’s a lot of things to adapt to.
“It felt alright this morning. We’re pretty happy. It’s a lot different, but the basics are the same. You have a steering wheel, you have the pedals, so it felt quite natural from the beginning even though it was different. The speed was quite okay from the beginning, but of course we have some more to find.”
Andersson followed up his practice one performance by going 17th fastest in practice two, but ended the day only 0.786 seconds off the pace set by 2021 World Touring Car Cup runner-up Frédéric Vervisch. Given his inexperience, how much of practice was spent on heavy fuel and race stint simulations?
“We’ve done a bit of a mix, but I think the races on Saturday and Sunday will be [an unknown],” he admitted.
“One big difference with touring cars is the weight. And the tyre wear is not so much in single-seaters as it is in touring cars. So I think the end of the races is the tough part for me, of course we have prepared and tested things, but I think that’s what will be a bit different. That’s what I’m, not afraid, but I don’t really know what to expect to be honest!”
Pauwels meanwhile was thrilled after topping practice two, which he was “totally not” expecting.
“Yesterday we were fast, but not the fastest out on track. And of course to be P1 on your first day in a touring car championship is great. I’ve always done rallycross before, so it’s completely new for me and I didn’t know what to expect. And for sure not [expecting] P1.
“But it’s a good ending to the day, it gives me confidence for tomorrow so I can go sleep with a good heart and I can wake up and I don’t have to stress about things during the night.”
The Belgian had been contact with Comtoyou’s team manager François Verbist “for quite a long time” before he did first test day with the team last year. “And then we made the decision to go for it!”
“Of course with no experience at all, it was necessary and this was the main priority to have a clean and clear practice programme,” he told TouringCarTimes.
“So we have done testing on mainly the tracks of TCR Europe, except Pau and Hungaroring. Pau nobody has driven, so this will be equal for everyone, and Hungaroring will be a more difficult weekend for us but at least I feel confident about it.
“We did quite some experience of [race runs] during testing. But the temperatures [of winter] were completely different than what we have this weekend. So we had a good chance to do that in FP1, but unfortunately we had some small issues which we found out after the session was a big loss of speed.
“Luckily the team sorted it out perfectly for me to be able to push fully in FP2, and I’m really someone that needs the confidence, so we decided to more work on the one-lap pace this time to be higher up the ranks to give me some more confidence for tomorrow.
“We’ve had some testing yesterday with the long runs, our pace looked quite decent. I thought we would be more to the back as I don’t have any experience with those temperatures out on track for a long run, but I was positively surprised.”
The pair’s maiden qualifying session, in which they will be competing for TCR Europe honours as well as being involved in the first ever event of the TCR World Tour, is scheduled for 09:50 local time on Saturday.
