Qatar’s Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah drives around Losail International Circuit during Race 1 of the World Touring Car Championships (WTCC) season finale in Qatar on Friday. Yokohama, the Japanese tyre company, celebrated 10 years with the WTCC.
By Joe Koraith
Doha
Yokohama has a long-standing relationship with motorsport and especially the WTCC. The Japanese tyre company celebrated their ten-year anniversary association with WTCC this year. The head of Yokohama Motorsport International, Daisuke Kanda, was here in Qatar during the season finale to oversee proceedings and he believes his company has achieved what it set out to do in 2006 when the association with WTCC began.
“This is the tenth anniversary this year. We have had a long relationship during which we have learnt many things regarding touring cars. In terms of technology, we believe that we are the best tyres for touring cars. I definitely believe that we have been able to achieve what we had started in 2006,” said Kanda.
And he said that supplying tyres for motorsport was a win-win situation for both parties. “The reason we are doing motorsport is that when we supply tyres to all the teams we get lots of data from them. And we can use those inputs and bring the latest technologies to passenger cars. Every latest technology that you see in passenger cars comes from motorsport,” he said.
With Volvo set to join WTCC as a manufacturer next season, Kanda hopes that there will be more competition.
“We have a new manufacturer in Volvo joining WTCC. Honda and Lada will stay. It will be more fun and exciting. Citroen is the king of the touring cars championships. I hope that Volvo will be competitive. I hope we see more cars on the grid and the competitiveness also increases,” he said.
Yokohama is currently focusing only on WTCC at the world level and while Kanda said that that remains their focus, getting into Formula 1 was also a possibility. “At the moment, in world championship, our focus is WTCC. We are happy to be here and supply for the next season too. At the top is Formula 1 and we are definitely looking up rather than down.”
This was the first time for the Japanese in Qatar and he was impressed with the track and facilities at the Losail International Circuit.
“This is my first time in Qatar, first time in the Middle East in fact. The circuit is perfect. MotoGP is being held regularly here. The facilities are great. We are happy with the circuit. Qatar is a nice and developed country. I hope that more local people follow motorsport,” said Kanda.
