WTCC drivers present: 
Mehdi Bennani, Sébastien Loeb Racing
Robert Dahlgren, Polestar Cyan Racing
José María López, Citroën Total WTCC
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team
Gabriele Tarquini, LADA Sport Rosneft
Trent Eastgate, Commercial Director, DHL Express Qatar

Q:
Firstly, welcome to Trent Eastgate, Commercial Driector, DHL Express Qatar, the Event Presenting Partner of WTCC DHL Race of Qatar. Trent, if we can ask why is DHL involved in motorsport, particularly in the WTCC?

TE:
First of all it’s spectacular, it’s real, it’s one of the fastest growing forms of motorsport and it’s really kicked on. Over the last few years the WTCC has set record after record and it’s really gaining a lot more popularity. When it comes to logistics, logistics is behind the scenes when it comes to motorsports but no car, wheel, engine even the fuel would reach the venue if it wasn’t for efficient logistics. A truly amazing motorsport event like this needs a world-class logistics partner. DHL is very proud to be a part of WTCC and it’s good to be here in Qatar.

Q:
Obviously the WTCC goes all around the world and DHL makes that possible. The last race was in China, now we’re here in Qatar. Can you explain just how all the cars and equipment made it from Shanghai to Qatar?

TE:
There are so many races across the world. It’s a bit like these guys sitting next to me in their teams. You’ve got the guys in the pits, the guys driving the cars and also the guys sitting behind the computers. I don’t know too much about racing but I know there’s a team. When it comes to DHL Express, when it comes to supporting the WTCC in terms of logistics lots goes into it. There’s the planning, the communication, there’s the team work, everybody has a specific role and plays their part and in the end it works. From across the world to here in sunny Doha, and the 30 containers that come here, it’s down to the experience of a lot of people pulling together and that’s not just in Doha but in every country where the races are on.

Q:
Turning to José María López, after three years of huge success this is your final WTCC event for now at least. Can you describe your feelings right now?

JML:
It’s definitely different than any end of the year. There are a lot of things. I know there are going to be a lot of people I’m not going to see frequently. I am not going to be able to share with the team track time and free time any more. In WTCC if there is something I have really appreciated more than anything is that it’s like a family. You can speak with the drivers, you can be yourself and sometimes in other series it’s very difficult to find that. Every single thing I do I think about that it’s the last time I do it with the team and the WTCC for the moment. It’s special. I’m trying to enjoy as much as I can and I am trying to enjoy myself because I would like to finish on a good note. But there are a lot of people, especially in my team, that I am going to miss a lot. I can look back that it was a fantastic three years for me but also a bit sad that I am leaving behind something that gave me a lot of things personally and professionally.

Q:
Turning to Mehdi Bennani next, Mehdi just like José you’ve had a very good season winning the WTCC Trophy. But the focus must now shift to this weekend and the battle for third place. How do you rate your chances?

MB:
It’s like a second country to come here to Qatar. But there is some stress and pressure also because I want to do my best for the Arabic supporters. If I am thinking about the WTCC Trophy for sure now it’s in my pocket so I will enjoy it. But the race is the race. We are here to fight, we are here to also bring some trophy to Morocco. We will push at the maximum because there are a lot of people coming to follow us and I hope to leave them the best message with a podium finish.

Q:
Turning to Tiago Monteiro. It’s a 31-point gap between you and Yvan Muller in the battle for second place but there are 55 points up for grabs so it’s more than doable. How confident are you of taking the runner-up spot?

TM:
Yes, indeed, lots of points to catch. Not easy but still a lot of points available. But, to be honest, I can lose more than I can win because it’s very difficult for me to overcome that amount of points considering the level of performance etc, etc. For sure I will try to score as many points as possible and I will do my best but he’ll need to have a bit of bad luck on his side. I’ll push hard and I want to finish on a good note, I am not so worried about that, I just want to try to win one more race, that would be great and if I am up there then the points will follow. Naturally everything will happen and it depends what he does and this I cannot control. Our objective this weekend is to be strong, to show the evolution we have done and kept doing and hopefully finishing on the top spot of the podium.

Q:
And you come here on a bit of a high after winning a race last weekend. Can you tell us what you were up to?

TM:
I had a great invitation to go to Macau. It’s no secret I love that track and I had a small revenge to take because two years ago I was leading until three corners until the end and I lost that to a mechanical problem. That was very frustrating and probably one of the hardest races I’ve lost and the hardest one to accept. I was really motivated to go back in any car to be honest. If it was a Formula 3 I would have gone back as well, anything would have done. I had fun, it was a tricky one, very tense, three hours and a half with the helmet on. You know in Macau everything can happen but I enjoyed it. It was a good event with good drivers and I won it. I was very excited of course with a big impact in Portugal because with a former colony it’s still very important for us and there are still a lot of Portuguese people there and it’s a very good event. Also my young driver, Antonio Felix da Costa won as well [in Formula 3] so two Portuguese winners on the same weekend was a huge impact. It was great and we were all very happy for it.

Q:
Turning next to Robert Dahlgren and a welcome back to the WTCC after a couple of races away. After two difficult events in Portugal and Argentina, I guess it’s a case of unfinished business for you here in Qatar?

RD:
Absolutely and it’s great to be back. I am really enjoying it here. It’s a great family and the events are great all the time. There are lots of strong teams and strong drivers so this is the place I want to be. I had my first event in Portugal and it was a tough track to come into to show how you can perform without hitting any walls. I managed not to hit any walls but it was not the greatest performance I’ve done. Argentina was a bit tough so it’s like you said, a bit of revenge. I’ve done a lot of testing for the team and we’ve moved forward and we’ll keep moving forward all the time. Hopefully we’ll see a bit of the development that’s been done this weekend as well.

Q:
Turning to Gabriele Tarquini, you’re an experienced driver so can you give as an overview of what it’s like to race at night?

GT:
In my past I raced many times in the night, in Italy in Misano, in England in the BTCC but to be honest this is something special because the lights are fantastic. Before there used to be a big evolution but here you don’t really feel the difference to drive with or normal natural light or in the night, there is not a big difference like there was in the past, especially because they put the lights on the line. You must adapt the cockpit lights, the shifting lights, for less light outside but driving is very close to the normal race.

Q:
We’ve heard from José about moving on for 2017 but about you Gabriele, what do you know for next year? How much would you like to carry on in the WTCC?

GT:
I have to say thanks LADA because last year after this race I knew I would be out of the Honda team and it would be my last race in the WTCC. Then after LADA trusted me again and I sign a contract with them to have this season. To be honest I enjoyed a lot. We improved a lot. I found a very good professional team. I did not expect the level to be fantastic but we improved a lot, the car improved a lot, the car performance improved a lot, we can fight, we won two races. Nicky was able to put the car sometimes on the first row in qualifying. We made a fantastic season and scored a lot of points and it’s a shame that this stop because now we can collect all the information of the year, we could improve in some areas of the car and next year we could win, especially as the top team is leaving, Citroën is probably the strongest team in the last 10 years of the WTCC. They won many, many races, they were very strong for everybody, not only for LADA and we can have a chance to compete for the top and it’s a shame they decided to stop.

Q:
Turning back to Robert Dahlgren, we saw in Free Practice 1 a red flag after Dániel Nagy went off. As a driver what was it like sitting waiting, does it affect your strategy and the programme you were trying to work through?

RD:
Not really. For us we kept in plan and we had a few changes we knew we were going to do. It went to plan but it also went outside the plan towards the end of the session when we improved the car. We got quicker and quicker all the time. It’s warm in the car but otherwise nothing.

Q:
Turning back to Mehdi Bennani, what’s the plan for 2017 and what can you achieve?

MB:
I really still don’t know. For the WTCC Trophy winner you want to get the opportunity to have a factory seat or in some way to drive for the factory team. Last year I was fighting with [Norbert] Michelisz and it was about four points in the end and it was a shame. At the end he directly had a factory seat with Honda. I still don’t know what will happen but for sure my aim and my focus is to stay in WTCC because we also have our local race in Marrakech. It’s a nice championship and everyone is focusing on it in Morocco. We have live TV coverage in Morocco. It’s a very strong championship and I hope to stay for next year.

Q:
Turning back to José María López, you said you were here to do your job this weekend and you certainly did that with the fastest time in FP1. We were thinking you might be relaxing during your final weekend but that’s obviously not the case. So is the plan more wins and more records?

JML:
You always try to do your best with the team like everyone here. Sometimes it depends on the performance of the car. Like Gabriele said I am seated in the best car in the WTCC. I have a big chance to be there. Whenever we jump in the car we try to do our best. Of course you want to do a good result in the last race of the season because it’s the last race for me with this team. We will see. Last year was good but this year the ballast is difference and you never know the conditions of the others until you get into qualifying. As everyone knows we’re using tyres from the last races so it depends who has the advantage with the tyres. By far it’s been one of my best FP1s of the year and I hope I can keep it up. But I know it will be difficult so we will see.

Questions from the floor:

Q:
Markus Lüttgens, Motorsport-Total.com (Germany) to all drivers: what’s your opinion of the tyre stacks on the exit of some corners. We saw some cars get real close to them, even having to avoid them?

JML:
We were speaking a bit about this. It’s difficult. We know this circuit is for MotoGP. They took off 80 per cent of the outside artificial grass so in one way or another you gain and then you lose. Last year it was a bit more tricky to respect the limits. This year you can run wider and that’s why the stewards decided to put in the tyre packs, which I think is the correct decision. We just need to see if the position is good. I think we need to have it or otherwise we will run much wider and use much more of the track. It’s mainly always the same issue in most of the tracks we go. Tracks today they tend to do it always with more asphalt so easier to drive. But it’s difficult for the stewards after to judge the track limits. Because we want to go as fast as we can and until we don’t have a gravel trap or a wall to limit us we will try to go faster. It was quite okay, maybe we can move the tyres a little bit early on the high-speed corners but I think it was not much we can do. It’s what it is.

GT:
Probably that when you are on the track you need to adapt to the different characteristics of the kerbs, especially for the different categories and type of races. Normally at this track they run motorbikes, cars and formula. Some cars are totally different from formula and very different from MotoGP so we need some special kerbs because our cars normally jump from the kerbs much easier than a formula and very different for a motorbike so we need higher kerbs for this track. In this track the outside, especially the outside kerbs are very small and we can run off very easily and you can gain. How you control? Here it is not like in Paul Ricard where you have just one corner but here in every corner you can have a small gain and for this reason you must put something to control all the cars and to have the same rules for everybody.

Q:
Markus Lüttgens, Motorsport-Total.com (Germany) to José María López. There are some speculations that you’ve already signed a contract with Toyota for WEC. Can you confirm that and if so will we see you in a full season or just the first three races. The second question is in the WTCC you were used to fight for race wins right from the very beginning, the first race here. Now in Formula E the challenge seems to be a bit tougher so what’s the feeling like just to fight for points rather than race wins?

JML:
The first question for sure I can’t confirm anything. I still have a contract with Citroën until the end of the year so we haven’t taken any decision and we will see what happens. Of course I have always said it’s one of my dreams to do Le Mans one day and if I can do it in LMP1 would be fantastic. It’s good that everyone is speaking but at the moment I can’t confirm anything. For the second question, of course touring cars has been very good to me from the beginning. I started my career in touring cars from the end of 2006 and from then it’s been amazing every race fighting for winning. It was also why I took the decision to try something else. I want to keep growing as a driver to try to see if I can drive quick other cars. Formula E is much more different and nothing like we have been using as a driver in the past. We have to learn a lot and it’s not a very instinctive series. You have to learn about other things, how to go quicker by managing your energy. It will take longer but for sure I didn’t arrive there with the mentality that I was going to win everything. It could be that maybe it’s not for my driving style. As I said touring cars, especially front-wheel-traction cars has always been good for me for my driving style. So we will see what happens. In Formula E I still have time and I’m not worried about my pace. There is a long way and if you see the rookies it’s always complicated. I still have time.