NEWSLETTER # 6 – 16 February 2007
SEAT SPORT UNVEIL FOUR CAR-TEAM
On Tuesday in Madrid SEAT Sport presented to the media their
four-car team that will take part in the 2007 FIA World Touring
Car Championship with the aim to win both the Drivers’
and the Manufacturers’ titles.
To achieve this ambitious goal the team SEAT Sport –
that classified second in the 2006 Manufacturers’ Championship
– have confirmed three of their last year’s drivers:
Yvan Muller (37-year old from France), Gabriele Tarquini (45-year
old from Italy) and Jordi Gené (36-year old from Spain)
who won one race apiece in 2006 to rank 4th, 5th and 10th
in the Drivers’ Championship respectively.
They are now joined in the team by Michel Jourdain, the 32-year
old Mexican driver who faces his first season in Touring Cars
after many years of racing in USA top series such as IRL,
Champ Car and Nascar.
THOMPSON CONFIDENT FOR THE NEW SEASON
After his first test since he re-joined the N.technology
Alfa Romeo team, which happened last week at the Italian racetrack
of Vallelunga, James Thompson is confident for the new season.
“It is great to be back with the team and it was great
to get back into the 156. It is an excellent car and it felt
great on-track,” said Thompson, who drove for the Italian
outfit as a guest in 2003 and 2004 and full-time in 2005.
“After a competitive season last year the team are
all raring to go, they are determined to fight for the championship
and that is exactly what I want to do. I am really looking
forward to getting back into competitive action.”
N.technology’s Team Principal, Mauro Sipsz, believes
Thompson will play a key role this season: “He has proven
his pace time and time again and he gets on really well with
the guys in the team. It was immediately clear from the test
that he is going to hit the ground running this season thanks
to his past experience with the team.” 2
BMW TEAMS TESTED IN VALLELUNGA
Three BMW teams completed a three-day test in Vallelunga
on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The weather was sunny,
with a dry track on the first two days, but was spoiled by
rain on the third one.
BMW Team Germany with Jörg Müller and Augusto Farfus
and BMW Team Italy- Spain with Alessandro Zanardi and Félix
Porteiro both completed the first test with their 2007 BMW
320si cars. Farfus was reported to be fastest by a couple
of tenths. Italian independent Proteam Motorsport joined the
test: Sergio Hernández drove on day one and was then
replaced by Luca Rangoni.
TWO DAYS IN VALENCIA FOR SEAT SPORT
Two more days of testing for SEAT Sport drivers have been
completed in Valencia, on Wednesday and Thursday. The Spanish
team focused their work on the car’s set-up and the
start.
Jordi Gené, Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini collected
a great deal of information that will be very useful when
the team come back to the Ricardo Tormo circuit at the end
of May for the championship’s third race meeting, SEAT’s
home race In the meanwhile Michel Jourdain continued his personal
set-up to get used to the difference between the front-wheel-drive
WTCC SEAT León and the car he drove last year in the
NASCAR series.
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