Vernay: “The WTCR starting grid will be magical”

Focus on continuity, by staying with Team WRT, is it a quality for a championship which has experienced many changes this winter?
This makes me very happy because we are coming out of two great years sanctioned by a title (in the TCR International Series last year, the highest level of the TCR. Editor’s note). We want to continue this momentum. For the third year in a row, I will be working with the same engineer, with whom I have built a friendship. WRT is one of the best private teams in the world, and the members know how to handle me, know my strengths and my weaknesses. There will be no adaptation period.

How do you analyze the WTCR field?
This is what has been done best over the last 10-15 years in Tourism. The starting grid will be magical. There will be the elite of the WTCC, with experienced pilots like Yvan Muller, and major TCR customers. The championship is likely to be very homogeneous, on paper at least 10 drivers can win. It will be super interesting, but much harder than in previous years. It's a great challenge, we'll have to work harder to get the title again.

More than half of the championship will take place on ex-WTCC circuits, never used by the TCR; Is this a disadvantage for you?
Necessarily. I don't know the circuits or the tires (provided by Yokohama. Editor’s note). In my opinion, learning the slopes will be done quite quickly, but it is true that Tiago (Monteiro), Norbert Michelisz, Rob (Huff), men who have been riding there for years, clearly have an advantage. They will have an idea of ​​the set-up to adopt based on the level of grip they already know. The “gap” is more technical. I can catch up on knowing the car, which follows the same technical regulations as last year, which is not the case for the teams from the WTCC.

Find the entire interview in issue 2153 of AUTOhebdo, on sale at newsstands as well asin digital version.