Present: 

Robert Dahlgren, Polestar Cyan Racing
John Filippi, Campos Racing (representing the WTCC Trophy)
Tiago Monteiro, Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team
Yvan Muller, Citroën Total WTCC
Gabriele Tarquini, LADA Sport RosneftRui Santos, Mayor of Vila Real
François Ribeiro, Head of Eurosport Events, WTCC promoter
Rui Santos, Mayor of Vila Real

Q:
You helped LADA to a 1-2 last time out in Russia but how much of this was down to your team getting lucky on home soil or was this real evidence of the progress LADA has made in the WTCC this season?

GT: 
I think it's a combination of factors. One, the car is growing from the last winter and the special characteristics of the Russian track and the rain. The combination of these three make the car really, really fast and uncatchable for everybody. It was not only a question of winning a single race but we dominated the whole weekend from qualifying to the last corner of the Main Race. It was our home race so I am really proud of the two victories we scored there. I hope that also in normal characteristic of this track we can do better than last year. For sure it’s a tough race here, completely different from a normal track. I like this track, last year I score a podium and I was one of the fastest Honda. I like this track, I like city tracks normally and I hope to do well a very good weekend.

Q:
You’ll be carrying 70 kilograms of success ballast this weekend. What difference will that make?

GT:
I don't know really because we never put 70 kilograms in the car before. Watching the last year performance the car carry only 10 kilos once or twice. This year we had 50 kilos in Budapest and now 70 kilos here. For sure the car is not happy but I am really happy to carry these kilos because it means the car is very competitive. I carry this weight with a smile on my face.

Q:
You arrive in Portugal on the back of your first podium in this year’s WTCC Trophy. What’s your target for this weekend?

JF:
Like every weekend the target is to be in the top 10 of Q2 and in the WTCC Trophy it would be good to finish on podium. The main thing to work in Free Practice and to do the good job in Q2. After I think if we have the opportunity to be in the top 10 the weekend is very different and it’s more easy to do a good result.

Q:
Yvan Muller is helping to coach you this season. What advice has he given to you about Vila Real?

JF:
To be more confident with the car, to do a good set-up – not the best set-up – but a set-up where I can be 100 per cent at my capacity. And to be more aggressive in Free Practice 1 and to do a good job in testing.

Q:
Welcome back to the WTCC. Can you talk us through how this drive with Polestar Cyan Racing came about?

RD:
I’ve been a part of WTCC programme from Volvo since the start. We did testing in pre-season last year and they wanted me to drive in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship so I did that. I’ve kept in close contact with the team and with the development they have been doing. But it was a bit of a surprise to be here now, they called me up on Wednesday last week, just before a round in the Scandinavian championship and asked if I had anything on this weekend. I said I would love to go here so it happened.

Q:
Do you feel under pressure to deliver a result for the team given the opportunity they have just given you?

RD:
Not at all actually. I want to help the team on the development phase and if the result comes it comes. I’ve not seen the track before so it will be a bit too much to ask I think.

Q:
But have they asked you not to crash the car and get some good results?

RD:
They basically asked me for everything! We will see what happens. It’s the same with every team. They don’t want you to crash or scratch the car but to go really fast it’s not a great combination so we will have to wait and see.

Q:
And a quick word on the car. You’ve done some of the development work so what are your impressions of the Volvo S60 Polestar TC1?

RD:
We haven’t done a lot of wet testing as has been shown. But the development has gone really fast forward. We need to take a big step forward in the second half of the year but the car is nice to drive.

Q:
Given your high standards – you’re a four-time WTCC champion and have won more races than any other driver – what’s gone wrong because you’ve yet to win in 2016 – is there a reason why?

YM:
Not a particular reason, bit of lack of performance and lack of luck sometimes. It’s a combination of a few different things. Unfortunately, the victory didn’t come to me this year. It’s the first season I have waited so long to have a victory and I hope I won’t have to wait too long.

Q:
Does your frustrating run of results make you more determined to succeed or has it affected your motivation to continue?

YM:
Of course when you don't play, since 10 years I’ve been in the WTCC I’ve been playing for the title every year. Of course this year the title is almost finished for me as well – it is finished. It’s a bit more complicated to be a bit more motivated but it’s my job. I have to give my best for Citroën and that’s why I am motivated, that’s what I am being paid for.

Q:
We saw Citroën win both races last year, that must be a great incentive for you?

YM:
Absolutely. This kind of track should suit the Citroën and the other cars have taken some weight. We are still at 80 kilos but the LADA is at 70 and the Honda at 60 so the weight penalty is not as against us this weekend. I hope it will help us.

Q:
All Hondas will carry 60 kilograms of compensation weight this weekend. How will this affect your chances of success?

TM:
It does effect of course a lot, obviously it’s a little bit of an unknown on this type of track. Weight effects everywhere but sometimes more than others. Here we are still wondering how much effect it will have. We would like to have had yes of course but this is the situation. We have to deal with it and we have to manage it the best way possible. It will be an issue for sure, a hard point to overcome, but we will do our best and it’s the same for everybody.

Q:
After Slovakia you were the first Portuguese driver to be leading an FIA world championship but your loss of points from the races in Morocco have hit your title ambitions hard. Is it a case of never giving up or is it game over as far as the championship in concerned?

TM:
You cannot resign yet – you never give up to be honest. But like Yvan said it’s going to be very hard not to catch up Pechito because he’s very far away with 100 and something points. Mathematically it’s possible but we will need a very strong performance until the end of the season, a lot of luck and he will need a little bit of bad luck. It’s not going to be easy for sure to fight for the championship. But nevertheless I am happy with how things went and how things started at the beginning of the season. Morocco yes and also Nordschleife because I lost a lot of points there but that’s the way a championship goes and it’s never finished until it’s finished. We will push until the end, nothing is over. But we have to be very realistic because it will be very hard to come back to Pechito. But we will fight until the very last race you can have no doubt.

Q:
There have been a few changes to the track layout for 2016. What difference will that make to the racing – better presumably?

TM:
Hopefully yes. It's a great track to drive, driving wise it’s really a big challenge, very tricky, very fast, very bumpy, a proper old school city street track and I personally love to drive in these situations and I think most of the drivers like it. Having said that there is not a lot of good places to overtake and it’s always tricky at a street track. If you look at Macau, which is six kilometres, there is only one overtaking point really. It’s not easy to create that overtaking corner. The change of the chicane on top of the hill could maybe help that a little bit but I have not seen it finished yet, to be honest, so I cannot really say. That was the idea behind the change to try to create an overtaking point. It’s always going to be hard, the track is not very wide and for sure qualifying more than ever, more than at most of the tracks, qualifying will be very important.

Q:
Why have you brought the WTCC back to Vila Real?

FR:
Because we agreed with Rui that we would make an effort on a three-year basis, minimum. We had very little amount of time last year to deliver the first event. But the first event was a success. Yes, everything was not perfect last year but we assessed that situation and made quite a lot of improvements this year for the second edition. In Vila Real there is everything a promoter is looking for. There is tradition, there is a difficult track, which is a challenge for the drivers, there are expectations, a huge amount of promotions, it’s a world championship event and the city is putting the right level of resources to receive the WTCC the way it should be. I am happy and glad about the efforts the city of Vila Real is putting behind the WTCC. It’s a logistics challenge for us, probably the most difficult event of the year, difficult for the logistics, for the paddock, the TV production. But in the end the results are great. There is a guarantee of a good show. Whatever people are waiting for – a performance, a race incident, a crash, whatever, it’s absolutely the guarantee there will be plenty of things going on over the weekend. And I feel a good level of expectation when Tiago says he has a lot of requests, a lot of demands over the last few days. I feel good about this. It means people are happy to see WTCC coming back at the end of June. There is the Euros, a lot of things going on now in the sporting world but I am sure it will make the city even more lively around the WTCC.

Q:
We’ve seen a lot of innovations, a lot of success so far this year so how would you describe the first half of the WTCC season?

FR:
If you look at the classification of the WTCC, the classification does not reflect the sporting reality of the championship. I am sad. Honda lost their points about their flat floor. The reality to this championship is the balance between the car manufacturers and the different teams is better than it has ever been with the new TC1 regulations. Citroën is more under pressure, Honda made a lot of work to catch up their level. It was a good fight in the Manufacturers’ championship title from the beginning of the championship. That fight is still going on but now it’s going on event-by-event. LADA obviously found something specifically in wet conditions but I hope we will not have wet conditions in Vila Real because we have had rain everywhere, even in Marrakech and Moscow where it is normally very hot and dry. I would be happy to see a good weather forecast for the weekend. I don’t mind heat and I don’t mind sunshine. It will be a bit difficult for them because the temperatures inside the car will be very high but I don’t mind! Because an event needs to be warm and lively, the weather conditions are very important specifically on a street race where motorsport is coming very close to people so it’s better for them to have good weather conditions. The season has been good with a lot of new things and a new manufacturer also coming. It’s struggling a little bit and we have seen the level of WTCC is so high that even a good driver like Ekblom lost his seat because the level is what it is. It’s a world championship and Volvo probably made the assessment they had to change something. I always told them to develop a good car and a good team three cars would be better than two. They decided to start with two and now they are suffering a bit. WTCC MAC3 has also been good and will be a big challenge here. We have seen in Marrakech the smallest mistake from Norbert Michelisz that all of a sudden you penalise the whole team. It will be a good event, I look forward to it and I am happy to be in Vila Real.

Q:
And there has been a change to the race format for this year?

FR:
The reforms we have made over the winter with the FIA to change the race format was a risk to be honest because it’s not easy to change race formats. We have seen so many other races failing in trying to reform. I cannot say the change of race format with the reverse grid in the Opening Race lowers down the level and show of WTCC. I do not see drivers taking less risk in Opening Race to protect their car for the Main Race. I see two good races, I see plenty of overtaking, plenty of action since the beginning of the season and I am sure it will be the same here. If you want to be world champion, you have to take risk on both races. If they want to catch up with Pechito they have to take risks also in the Opening Race for sure.

Q:
What can you say about the live coverage planned for this weekend?

FR:
Both races will be live on TVI in Portugal, they will give great free-to-air coverage over the whole weekend and the whole weekend will be live on Eurosport. There will be plenty of people following on social media. Last year was a big hit and we were delivering 1.5 million views only on Facebook and Twitter with WTCC clips, which is a lot and I expect three or four times more traffic than last year because WTCC is delivering very good on social media this year.

Q:
There’s another event involving the WTCC this weekend and that’s taking place in the UK at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. That sounds very exciting…

FR:
We should also say about the ETCC because we brought the European Touring Car Cup to Vila Real this year. I have been a bit against the ETCC team because they all told me it’s far away from the centre of Europe but it’s good to bring the ETCC to Vila Real. And on Friday morning starts the WTCC ART CARS competition at Goodwood. We are in the Formula One paddock and you cannot have a better place than what Goodwood gave us. I am not an artist but it’s a good way to promote the WTCC differently and to promote the WTCC in the biggest motorsport event in the UK, because it’s bigger than F1 in the UK, bigger than BTCC with 250,000 spectators. People will be able to vote for the liveries they like. Honda has made something stunning with Michel Vaillant, Volvo made also something with Prince Carl Philip of Sweden and TAG Heuer painted a livery live in front of the spectators. It’s different and it makes a buzz on social media and promote WTCC to a UK audience. I hope it will work and I hope we will be able to do it on a long-term basis with Goodwood.

Questions from the floor:

Q: 
University Radio to François Ribeiro: Soon we will be starting 25 hours of live coverage of this event but what do you think of the track – is it good at this length or should we go back to the old seven-kilometre track?

FR:
It's a good question and one you should ask to the Mayor also! The first thing I asked when I saw the races last year was to redesign the chicane with the FIA and with FPAK. This is what they have done and I hope it will be better this year. It was too narrow, too slow and it was not good for the race or the TV. There is one thing I asked, which the FIA refused, was to go both sides of the roundabout but the FIA said it was too dangerous, fine, it was only an idea. It’s true there is the possibility to extend the track to go to the lower side of the side but it’s not on the agenda for today. If we take this decision in the future it will be a decision we take together with the city and the FIA, it’s not my decision.