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Petr Čížek with a Cupra León Competición from the Fullinrace Academy team is satisfied with the results from the first event of the season at Hungaroring. But as a true racer, he always sees room for improvement. The next stop of the TCR Eastern Europe championship is the Red Bull Ring, where Cupras should have an advantage.
Before the start of the season, you talked about your goal, which is regularly finishing with points. You managed to do it at Hungaroring. So are you happy with the opening round of this season?
Compared to previous seasons, it is definitely an improvement, but there is still something missing that is keeping it from being the ideal situation. Also, the first race was unfortunate, because my teammate Carol Wittke did not reach the finish line after making contact with an opponent.
Overall, how do you rate your weekend at Hungaroring?
Overall, I have mixed feelings. In both races, I raced like never before in my short career, but unfortunately, it wasn’t my best due to my bad qualification in wet conditions. On the other hand, Carol had a decent qualification, but an unfortunate first race. So overall, as a team, we could show better results. But there is something to build on for the upcoming weekends.
You achieved the best result for the Cupra brand in both races. From this point of view, it must be encouraging for you. On the other hand, it turned out that none of the Cupras had enough speed for top position, right?
I don’t know if it’s encouraging, when I finished only 6th and 7th. We knew going in that Hungaroring doesn’t suit Cupras very well. However, our car worked well, so it’s up to the driver to improve in order to compete for top positions.
Is there anything you want to work on for the next event at the Red Bull Ring?
There is always room for improvement. When there is nothing more to improve, we will probably be world champions. The Red Bull Ring is a specific track; you need to find a setup that will be properly balanced and will fit both the car and the drivers. Maybe we can do it…
You will have no weight ballast at the Red Bull Ring. Is this a big advantage for a fast circuit like that?
That should be an advantage. In addition, the Cupra has one of the highest top speeds in the field. We will see if the competition surprises us with anything, but of course we will do everything we can to be as fast as possible in the lap times.
What results would allow you to leave the Red Bull Ring feeling satisfied?
Personally, I would like some podium places. I would be happy if we, as a whole team, avoided any complications, if the weekend went smoothly, and if the weather was nice, so we could enjoy it. And receiving a trophy during the weekend would be really nice.
