Hugo Valente admits that he was considering a switch to the TCR International Series before the opportunity for him to continue in the World Touring Car Championship with LADA arose.
Valente had been considering a switch to the TCR category for 2016, and was negotiating with several leading teams in the series, before the opportunity to join LADA came about.
Having ended the 2015 season in a career-best ninth overall in the championship, Valente revealed that he didn’t have the budget to continue in 2016 as a privateer.
When Honda decided not to renew Gabriele Tarquini’s contract in December it provided the shake-up to the driver market which was needed in order to give Valente a chance in a manufacturer team for the first time.
“It was tough to begin with, because before the news about Tarquini came out, everything was pretty blocked,” said Valente to TouringCars.Net. “There was no way I could continue as a privateer because it’s too expensive and it’s not efficient enough, especially now that there’s no more development of the car.
“It would have been very hard to continue with the Chevrolet and I didn’t have the budget for it anyway. I was actually looking at a lot of things, including TCR, because it’s very cheap compared to the WTCC. I was looking at that a lot, and then we got the news about Tarquini, and I thought that it would maybe mean a chance with Honda or with LADA.
“I spoke to François Ribeiro and got in touch with Victor [Shapovalov] at LADA and we made it happen so it’s good news.”
LADA had been originally considering a two-car entry for 2016, but when the decision was finally made to run three cars, Valente admitted that the driver wish-list wasn’t a long one.
“They weren’t sure at the beginning if they wanted to do two or three cars. You have to run three cars for the MAC3 [qualifying format] to be a part of that, and I think they know that they will be more efficient if they have three cars, in terms of developing and improving the car – you always get more data with three cars than if you only have two.
“I had no idea I was going to be team-mates with Tarquini until three or four weeks ago – I got to know in early January. We got in contact with François and Victor and that’s how it happened really, it wasn’t very complicated. I don’t think they had interest in any other driver in the WTCC, and I don’t think they wanted anyone else coming from GTs because they already had Nicky.”
The 23-year-old Frenchman added that he was looking forward to being partnered with the experienced tin-top racer Tarquini, who is thirty years his senior. The duo took part in pre-season testing at the manufacturer’s Magny-Cours base last week, with Valente immediately impressed by Tarquini’s knowledge.
“I’m very happy because I also got to see Gabriele last week at Magny-Cours and we stayed there for a week together; he was testing and then I was testing. It’s great to work with Gabriele because he’s got such huge knowledge of the car and the engine.
“I’m amazed because he just knows everything – he’s like ten engineers in one person. It was unbelievable – for me it’s a great experience because I come from Campos Racing, and whilst I loved being there as part of a big family, I was pretty much alone there and I didn’t have anyone to compare myself with on the data. I was the one giving direction in terms of set-up.
“I think it’s worked out pretty well, but then again when you are next to someone like Gabriele who literally knows everything about the car, it’s unreal. Now I take notes, I write down pretty much everything he says. It’s very exciting to be team-mates with him, and I think we’ve got a strong line-up to improve the car.”