Esteban Guerrieri, the WTCR − FIA World Touring Car Cup’s most successful driver in terms of race wins, starts season five of the all-action series at Circuit de Pau-Ville (May 7-8) still chasing his first world crown.
And having been a contender for title glory in each of the past four seasons with Germany-based ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport, the 37-year-old from Argentina, a 10-time WTCR race winner, is just as determined to impress behind wheel of his Goodyear-equipped Honda Civic Type R TCR.
On going one better…
“With ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport and with Honda there is a consistency in the package and this is a positive thing. We know the car and are on top of everything that we have experienced so we try to think out of the box of the things that have happened and that probably did not go 100 per cent in the right way during the past years. After this analysis we tried to replicate these things during the [winter] testing and tried to find ideas or solutions to put into practice when it comes to the moment of racing, which is the moment that counts. That’s the main direction we were looking into during testing. Now let’s go racing but how it goes is something you can’t predict.”
On maintaining motivation…
“When I get in the competitive mode I just get motivated. I really want to extract my maximum and try to go out of the comfort zone to reach the next level. That’s part of my DNA and it happens in WTCR, it happens when I go to play tennis, when I do my triathlons or my running competitions. In the end that’s what drives me, not if it’s the first WTCR season or the fifth. Racing is my job and I really try to take care not only about driving but all the other things involved, but the motivation is not in doubt.”
On hitting back after a winless 2021…
“Every race is a new challenge. You are only as good as your last result and that’s part of the sport. I am challenging myself to be as good as my expectations. Obviously not winning a race [in 2021] was not in my plans but if you analyse how the series plays out you don’t really need to win races. You need to be consistent and that will put you in a position for the ultimate goal, which is fighting for the title. In previous years I won many races and last year, for different reasons, there was not a victory but, in the end, I arrived to the end of the season with possibilities of being the winner. A win is a win and this will give you the maximum points in an event and it’s very important because you score a lot of points but different circumstances brought me to not be able to win but it’s important to be consistent. After the first two events I realised I was in trouble because of the issues I had. In the end I put a target of scoring big and trying to have one strong weekend that would put me for the fight of the title again and that happened in Most. In the end you need to see and react.”
On two cars only…
“When you have a smaller team it can be easier and we will focus on the performance as good as we can, like we always do. At the same time I am obviously wishing Tiago [Monteiro] and Attila [Tassi] in the other Honda team to be competitive as this is also important.”
On team-mate and friend Néstor Girolami…
“When Néstor came on board with Honda it was the idea of having a strong pair of drivers to give Honda the best results possible and we succeeded on this many times. Now we want to replicate the strong performances like we did in the past.”
