Why Qatar?
“Very simply: because of my relationship with the QMMF and President Nasser Khalifa Al-Attiyah. When you see for such a small country what QMMF is doing in motorsport on two wheels and four wheels is outstanding. I know no other federation of such a small country, which is doing so much for motorsport. I trust QMMF and I trust Nasser and when he gave me his word that he would do a first-class event for WTCC I had no hesitation. The second thing that picked up my brain is the quality of the infrastructure. Losail is a first-class circuit, which has been doing great for MotoGP. I said to Nasser you open the season with MotoGP so why don’t you close the season with WTCC? I think it’s good for your calendar so why not? That was the beginning of our discussion but then, maybe most importantly, is the common goal and appetite we have together to find a Middle East driver to do in the Middle East what Mehdi Bennani has done in Morocco. WTCC made Mehdi Bennani a star in his country and I hope that in the future we will find a Middle East driver to bring him on in the WTCC and make him something. There is not only Formula One and single-seater in motorsport. Touring car is also very important and touring car is a great way for young drivers to become professional drivers. That’s the goal we have long term and very few ASNs are supporting young drivers like this to help them achieve their dream and become professional drivers. That’s also one part of Nasser and QMMF that I like very much.”
This will be the WTCC’s first night race. How significant is this?
“Qatar has been a pioneer before anybody had night races. If I remember well their first night race was with MotoGP in 2004 four years before Formula One and probably 10 years before Abu Dhabi. It was a natural choice to go to Qatar to do the first race for WTCC. We have been finishing WTCC for 10 years in Macau. Macau is great, Macau is an amazing city, Macau is an amazing tradition for motorsport and touring car in particular. But in Macau we were racing at lunchtime on Sunday, which meant a very, very difficult broadcast. To finish a championship you want the maximum number of people in front of the television and to finish the championship at lunchtime in Macau on Sunday meant that European viewers had to get up at five or six o’clock the WTCC final round. I don’t know if you watch TV at home with your family at five o’clock on Sunday morning – personally I don’t. That was the idea to finish the championship in a better time zone to have as many spectators as possible watching on TV. We are going to race Friday evening here in Losail when it will be between seven and nine o’clock Central European Time. This is a great time for television and to give you an idea on Eurosport before us there will be one of the biggest audiences of the year with a ski jumping event from Finland and straight after WTCC, Eurosport will go live with alpine skiing from Apsen in USA and the WTCC will be in an amazing environment on television. We will put Qatar on the map and I estimate over 60 million viewers in the world. This will be difficult to do in Macau whatever the respect that I have for what Macau has done for us for the last 10 years.”
What are your expectations for the final round of the season?
“Maybe we have been lucky with the rain [on Wednesday]. I know it’s very unusual in Qatar, very unusual. I was surprised when I landed to have that amount of water on the Corniche. But it reminded me exactly the conditions we had in Motegi in Japan where we had huge storms and huge rain before the race, which washed out completely the track. There was no grip and at Motegi were probably some of the best touring car races of the season. I think the same conditions will happen in Losail. The level of grip will be very low, the racing won’t be easy but it will be very spectacular. For the Qatari people the WTCC is new. It’s the first time we come and we never came in the Middle East for 10 years so WTCC is new and they will see a lot of similarities between MotoGP. They are sprint races, there is no pit stop, there is no strategy, it’s bumper-to-bumper with a lot of action, incidents, overtaking – it’s very exciting. You don’t have time to fall asleep, the race is not played on pit stops or tyre change, it’s purely the determination of the drivers to win a race and I think the Qatari people will do a parallel very quickly between WTCC and Moto GP.”
As the championship promoter how important is it to have a local driver in Nasser Al-Attiyah on the starting grid?
“It’s great. Personally I would have been so sad to come here to Qatar and not to have its greatest ambassador of sport. Not only is he an Olympics ambassador, most importantly you cannot do more than him to promote motorsport and his country through motorsport. He had the season that was just unbelievable. He won Dakar, he won WRC2, he won the Middle East Rally Championship but he will not win WTCC. You cannot expect him to win for his first time out in WTCC – ask Sébastien Loeb how tough is WTCC. It’s an unbelievable level of competition. You will probably see 12 cars in one second in the qualifying so it’s going to be very difficult. I hope he likes that experience because coming from rallying to touring car is exactly the opposite. It’s a 180 degrees exercise between the two categories. I just hope he enjoys it because if he enjoys it Nasser is one of the only drivers on the planet to be completely free for his choices. If he likes it then it could be his next sporting challenge, who knows? Anyway I’m super-glad that such a high-profile person like him is participating in his home event. It’s great and I am sure he will have a very warm welcome from all drivers in the same way all WTCC drivers gave a very warm welcome to Sébastien Loeb at the beginning of last year. I wish him well – he’s a great competitor.”
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