Touring Car Legend - Tarquini retires

Touring Car legend Gabriele Tarquini announces his retirement! Tarquini, arguably one of the most successful and respected Touring Car drivers of all time, has today announced his retirement from motorsport. The Italian driver will bring to an end his incomparable career after the two final events of the WTCR, at Adria this week and at Sochi on the last weekend of November. Tarquini’s racing career began at the age of 10, when he debuted in the 125cc regional karting championship. After being crowned Italian champion three times, European champion once and having won the Class C World Championship in 1984, he switched from karting to car racing. He went quickly through F3 and F3000 before landing in F1 where he took part in 78 events over seven seasons. His outstanding Touring Car career began in the 1987 World Championship with an Alfa Romeo 75 Turbo and continued until today, totalling nearly 700 races at the wheel of BMW, Alfa Romeo, Honda, SEAT, LADA and Hyundai cars. The peaks of this amazing adventure were the titles in the 1994 British Touring Car Championship and the 2003 FIA European Touring Car Championship with Alfa Romeo and those in the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship for SEAT and in the 2018 FIA World Touring Car Cup for Hyundai. Tarquini became World Champion at the

age of 47, World Cup winner at the age of 56 and claimed his most recent victory this year at Aragón in WTCR at the age of 59, setting a series of records as the oldest champion and race winner in FIA history.

Exclusive interview

“Nothing lasts forever, not even my career!” After announcing his retirement, a relaxed Tarquini tells us about his feelings: “A couple of days ago I shook down Michelisz’s car and mine for this weekend, which is something I have regularly done over the last few years. And yet, it was a strange feeling. I savoured those drives in a different way, because I knew that was the one of the last shakedowns of my career. These are the things I will miss, but sooner or later I had to stop. Nothing lasts forever, not even my career! And I can’t regret anything. I have to say: I stopped too early, maybe I could do one more year. You can always do one more year, but I was lucky enough because I had a very long career that was very rewarding, even in the later years. The two World titles in 2009 and 2018 arrived at a time when most of the drivers of my generation had already retired. Which is why I savoured them so much. More than when I was younger and still focusing on the future and the next goals. I thought my 2009 WTCC title would have been the last one, instead I won WTCR nine years later and I’m still able to win races now... I have really enjoyed those last few years, as I was more relaxed and had no ambitions to build a career, like the younger people have.” What are the expectations for these few last races? Obviously, I will try to finish on a high, with a victory at Adria or Sochi, but I’m aware that the priority is to support Jean-Karl Vernay in his effort to fight for the championship. And I will put this before the personal ambitions during these last four races, just like I have done in the past.” Is this the end of Tarquini’s involvement in motorsport? “For the time being I have no plans, and I will take some time to wait and see what happens around me. I took this decision after my victory at Aragón in July and immediately informed Hyundai to give them the possibility to plan the future. We are currently talking to see if there is an opportunity to keep on working together in some ways. I would like to stay in motorsport, and I am confident that I won’t be short of opportunities. In all those years I have made a lot of friends and built a solid reputation, as a driver, but also as a person. I can see that there are many people who trust me, and this makes a big difference.” Best wishes for the future from everyone at MotorWerks Magazine Gabriele!