Pre-season Newsletter 2007-02-08

THREE COLLECTIVE TESTS IN EUROPE

The FIA WTCC competitors will take part in three collective test sessions during the month of April, in order to be prepared for the European season that will start in Zandvoort, Netherlands, on May 6.

<pre> List of collective tests April 3 and 4 Brno, Czech Republic April 16 and 17 Oschersleben, Germany April 24 and 25 Monza, Italy

No further collective test sessions will be organised during the season. </pre>

FIVE TEST SESSIONS ON FRIDAY

On five of the eleven race meetings, competitors will be given the chance to take part in a 30-minute test session on the Friday afternoon of the race weekend, with the exception of Macau, where the test session will be held on Thursday. These extra sessions have been approved by the FIA Touring Car Bureau to enable the competitors to check their cars after the overseas journeys or to learn the new venues included in the calendar. At all the other events track activities will be limited to two days: Saturday and Sunday.

<pre> List of test sessions Friday, 9 March Curitiba, Brazil Friday, 4 May Zandvoort, Netherlands Friday, 1 June Pau, France Friday, 6 July Porto, Portugal Thursday, 15 November Macau </pre>

SEAT TESTED IN BARCELONA

The SEAT Sport team completed a two day test at Barcelona's Catalunya racetrack. The Spanish team shook down the 2007 León cars that will be shipped to Curitiba, Brazil, in the coming days, but also focused on different set-up solutions, aerodynamic adjustments and improvement on the standing start.

All four SEAT Sport drivers attended the test: Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini on Monday, Jordi Gené and Michel Jourdain on Wedenesday, but the former completed some laps also on the first day.

The team dedicated special attention to the apprenticeship of Jourdain; the Mexican driver completed 75 laps and used Gené as a benchmark.

"It was not an easy task for him," SEAT Sport director Jaime Puig commented "because this is Jordi's home track. However every time Michel drives the León he is quicker. He will need some more time to get used to the front-wheel drive, but he has the potential to become competitive."

The Spanish team will test again in Valencia next week, on February 14 and 15.

SERGIO HERNÁNDEZ JOINS PROTEAM

Proteam Motorsport signed 22-year old Sergio Hernández for the 2007 season. The young Spaniard had his first drive for the team on Tuesday at Magione, Italy, in the BMW 320si that was in the hands of his new team-mate Luca Rangoni during last year's WTCC.

Like fellow countryman Félix Porteiro, who has recently joined the BMW Team Italy- Spain, Hernández will face his first Touring Car campaign after he built his racing career claiming podium results and championship points in single seaters, moving from Formula 3 ­ the Spanish and the British championships ­ to the World Series and finally the GP2 in 2005 and 2006.

-credit: fia/wtcc