May 13-15, the mythical Autodromo di Monza will play host to the third meeting of the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC). Three weeks after his podium at Zolder and moving up from 8th to 5th place in the overall ranking, Tiago Monteiro is tackling the Italian races with the motivation to build on his Belgian performance, but the Portuguese driver knows it will be hard to repeat his Belgian exploits at the European Temple of Speed, when his Sun-Red SEAT León will probably still not yet have its new engine.
"We do not yet know if we are going to be racing with the SEAT León 1.6 liter turbo engine. If we have to race with the SEAT TDI, we will have a 40 hp deficit that would be a serious handicap on this circuit which has more than its fair share of very high speeds," Tiago explained, "Obviously we can try to take advantage of the slipstream in Monza’s long straightaways, by lightening the aerodynamic package to minimize our handicap, but it won’t be as easy as just that. The forecast for the weekend calls for rain and if that happens, it would certainly be a little nudge in the right direction to leveling the playing field."
Aware of the challenge awaiting him, Tiago knows one thing, he will fight until the end and never give up. "We know the final result is a big unknown. Given the circumstances, it would be dangerous to try and make predictions and set precise objectives. Therefore our main objective will be to score points," Tiago concluded.