AP:
It has been a brilliant season. I should be sitting here with a healthy points lead really. I was taken out at Brno whilst on the front row with the heaviest car and the best BMW that had weight on board, while at Zandvoort I was leading and I was driven off the road. I can’t control that so I could have had three or four wins this season. There have been other races where I have followed a slower team-mate but I could not find a way past, like Valencia, Porto, Pau and Oschersleben. So I know the speed it there, it is just a matter of having a bit of luck and if that comes in the next few races, I will be a happy man.
Crash.net
That consistency has meant success ballast has been a regular factor on race weekends for you? Can you ever get used to it?
AP:
I just ignore it now and drive as fast as I can. It is something you learn to live with. I have spent my whole career getting to where I am, driving for one of the best manufacturers in the world with
BMW, and I am happy to have a great job. Ballast can work with you or against you and the WTCC really isn’t a championship for egos because the fastest drivers down always win the races and quite often the slower drivers win the races with the reverse grid and less ballast on board. I am not being funny, but I would rather win the championship rather than win three races but feature very badly in the rest. To win with the lightest car isn’t that rewarding.
Crash.net
Compared to the likes of
Lewis Hamilton, the name Andy Priaulx will not be as well known on the street. Would you like recognition in the wider public domain, away from motorsport?
AP:
The most important thing a driver wants is recognition from his sport and in motor racing I am well recognised and respected. So if I was a football player or a cricketer, then I would be very well recognised. From what Lewis is experiencing though, it isn’t always that nice and he may have to leave the country, so I am happy because I have recognition in my sport, I am a multiple world champion and I can be relaxed in an environment outside motor racing; I am sure that my profile is as high as it will ever be.
James Toseland experiences the same in motorbikes, so at the end of the day you cannot change it and you have to live with it.
Crash.net
What do you make of the new diesel-powered SEAT Leon that swept to victory at the Oschersleben? Is it fair it gets to race?
AP:
I can’t influence anything but at the end of the day, when they turn up the turbo boost in qualifying then they are really quick I just like putting a good lap together and placing it on pole position, with or without boost, with or without weight. You just have to do your job right. We just have to be careful with the rules because every car is different and is getting difficult for fans to understand. It is like ‘he is driving a diesel with 100kilos’ and ‘he is driving a petrol with a high compression ratio’ and ‘he has a front splitter’. It is just getting complicated, so lets keep the cars the same and make the best driver win.
