As an established member of the Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team, Italian Gabriele Tarquini is about as close as it gets to a ‘home’ driver for JVC KENWOOD WTCC Race of Japan. The popular and vastly experienced racer looks back on his season so far and his hopes for success at Twin Ring Motegi.
Like most WTCC drivers you’ve probably never driven at Motegi before, right?
“No, I drove a Honda Super GT car during a Honda thanks day with my team-mate Tiago [Monteiro]. We did seven or eight laps.”
From that short test do you have an idea of what it will be like when you race your Honda Civic WTCC at Motegi?
“It matches very well with the characteristic of WTCC and I think the races can be much more exciting than Suzuka. Suzuka is one of the best tracks in the world to drive but it’s very difficult to overtake the car in front of you in these cars. It’s quite a shame because normally our race is a fight race so I hope in Motegi the show will be different than last year’s races in Suzuka.”
It’s obviously closer to Tokyo than Suzuka. Does that make it more important for Honda?
“I don’t have an Italian WTCC race so for me it’s the home race. Last year I had a chance to win the second race in Suzuka so it was a great event for me and for Honda. This year it’s really important because Motegi, like Suzuka, is owned by Honda. It’s a Honda base for R&D, very close to Tokyo so for us it’s a very important event.”
Is it perhaps even more important because this season hasn’t been so successful for Honda?
“We are quite far from the Citroën pace, especially in qualifying. For me the first part of the season wasn’t really good, not in terms of performance but in terms of the result. I will be focused to do a great race in Motegi.”
As a driver is it tough to cope with the fact the success isn’t coming as regularly as it used to, particularly given your past record?
“No because my target is to come back to the pace. I push and Honda and JAS push to develop an engine and chassis to be close to Citroën. But it’s not easy. We tested a lot last winter and during the summer. Our target is to close the gap to Citroën and not accept this status quo and fight for the fourth and fifth place on the grid. We are focused to close the gap, to come back to win the first races.”
How much more competitive will the car be based on the work you have done during the summer?
“For sure the speed will not be very important in Motegi and at the moment our car is far away from the top speed of Citroën and Chevrolet and the acceleration is also not very good. The best for our car is the twisty track. Motegi is not very fast but not very twisty with medium speed corners so I think we can be competitive.”
Turning back to Japan, what’s special about the country?
“It’s my favourite food, the sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki. I like the attitude and education of the Japanese people. They respect the law much better than other countries. It’s also a country with a long history in motorsport, especially Honda. They want to be on the top again in F1 and other categories and I am sure with their technology and the engineers they will be back.”
And the fans are pretty special too…
“They love motorsport. The attitude they have is very similar to the Italian fans with the passion. They make a lot of effort to follow motorsport very closely. Even though they only have one race in Japan, they know everything about WTCC and my long career.”
You raced in four Japanese grands prix – what was better, racing in Japan in F1 or in the WTCC?
“My best memory of Japan is the WTCC. In Formula One I was fighting to place my car on the grid so I don’t have great memories of that. But one of my best memories was in Japan last year when I won in front of the Japanese fans. And winning in a Honda made it even more special.”