Blog
Hungarian driver Levente Losonczy changed cars during the season. His new weapon in TCR Eastern Europe will be Aggressive Team Italia’s Hyundai Elantra and Losonczy is looking forward to a new opportunity behind the wheel of this fast car.
You missed a couple of races this season and now you are returning with a Hyundai Elantra instead of an Alfa Romeo. You are going to start for Aggressive Team Italia. How did this deal come about?
I was given the opportunity to do a test with the new Hyundai Elantra N TCR car. After that, we decided to continue with this car.
What is the reason for changing cars?
The Alfa is an extremely good and competitive car, but considering the future, it makes more sense to drive a more modern build. This year was planned as a learning year, so it makes sense to do the car change now and to already start preparing for next year with the Hyundai.
What do you think are the Elantra’s strengths compared to other cars in the field?
So far, I have spent very little time in the car, so it is hard to say. We have to use all of the track time available very effectively to get to learn the real strengths of the Elantra.
At the opening round of the season at Hungaroring, we saw that Hyundai Elantras were fast cars. Fast enough for winning. What do you think of your chances? What goals do you have for Slovakia Ring?
I’m under no illusions about the scale of the challenge; the biggest thing is going to be mainly about adapting to the new car and working closely together with the team. I’m convinced that we can achieve great results together. My target is to be competitive from the start of the race weekend, but, primarily, my goal is to learn as much as possible and to make continuous progress. I will give it my all, as I always do, and I look forward to going on this journey together with Aggressive Team Italia.
Are you going to start with the Elantra at Most as well?
We are still planning the second half of the season, which includes some other TCR events. We will evaluate our possibilities and make a decision shortly about the final round in Most.
Although you missed two rounds at Poznaň and Grobnik, you started in the first two rounds at Hungaroring and Red Bull Ring. So how do you rate your season so far?
This is my first season with a TCR car. At Hungaroring, we had a gearbox failure on Friday which made us think that the weekend was over. Fortunately, just in time for qualifying, my car was [repaired and] ready so that I could still fight for positions. Qualifying happened to be a wet session, also making it my first time ever in wet conditions with such a car. I missed out on pole by 1.2 seconds and claimed 4th place. This was probably my best performance in my car racing career so far. In the first race, after some proper, but respectful fights, I claimed 5th place. In the second race, a racing incident meant an early end to a successful weekend. At Red Bull Ring, it took me some time to find the right pace as well as the ideal setup due to getting almost no clear laps because of the GT3 cars. I claimed 11th in qualifying and 6th in the first race. In the second race, I was running in fifth position when another driver crashed into me, which made my brakes stop working. After that, the race was over for us. All things considered, this year is about learning and getting as much experience in the TCR field as possible. I cannot wait for the fifth round of the championship at Slovakia Ring! I really miss racing and I’m looking forward to taking on the challenge with my new team.
