LADA Sport’s Viktor Shapovalov says he is looking to rebuild the manufacturer’s driver line-up in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), after James Thompson departed the team in Hungary.
Thompson was withdrawn from the Budapest event, citing medical reasons due to dental complications at the time, but it has since been revealed that his departure may also be linked to performance issues, with Eurosport Events’ COO François Ribeirio having encouraged LADA to test Argentine Nestor Girolami as a potential future driver.
“Frankly, I was the one going to Viktor at the Hungaroring and saying ‘what is Thompson bringing to your team? What is Thompson bringing to the championship? Because if you think he is bringing something then maybe I am the one to be blind’,” said Ribeiro. “But I don’t think so. So I proposed to him to test Girolami, I said ‘let me put him in the car and you will see’.
“Viktor gave me a call on Tuesday after the test and said he’s ready to sign him immediately for 2016. He’s a young guy, he’s of the simulator generation like [José María] López, he’s a touring car expert and he has no single-seater background. He felt immediately comfortable with a TC1.
“He’s super-professional and super committed and Viktor said he wants to sign him immediately.”
Shapovalov ruled out Girolami being able to compete in any races for the team this season due to his commitments in the Argentinean TC2000 series with Peugeot, but admitted that he was impressed with the young drivers performance during the test in Budapest.
“He [Girolami] took part in our testing in Budapest and was really good,” said Shapovlov to TouringCars.Net. “For me it was nice to see a young driver who was at a really high professional level.
“This year he is very busy with his national championship and everything, so I think it’s not possible to have him in the team.”
Shapovalov also alluded to keeping Van Lagen in one of the team’s cars for the next round in Moscow, where Mikhail Kozlovskiy may re-join the team.
“We will be in Moscow with three cars for sure. We will prepare some testing in Magny-Cours with some drivers before Moscow, and after Moscow I think we can find a solution for this year. Next year we’ll see how to develop. I am looking for something to rebuild our driver line-up for sure.”
When asked about the importance of keeping a Russian driver in the team, even if they are not yet at a world championship level, Shapovalov lamented the lack of a strong domestic pool of talent for Russian touring car drivers.
“For us it’s important to have a Russian driver in the team, but today the problem is that we can’t make a good choice,” explained Shapovalov. “We don’t have a very strong Russian championship and don’t have a big choice of Russian drivers.
“For sure this is very, very important but on the other hand we should understand that this is a world championship and the level of the drivers should be at the top. Now we have to find a solution how we can realise working with a Russian driver to involve them with the team. But maybe it will take some time for this.”