For the first time it wasn’t bad….
Some people think that Filip Salaguarda 22 years old driver backed out the attention of the motoring’s fun last year, but that would be an incorrect thought. In fact he participated in the Formula 3 European championship with his family team ISR. It was one of the most important steps in his racing career and first experience with Dallara (Opel engine).
I’ve got lot of worth full experiences for my next racing career, but Opel engine wasn’t so powerful like Mercedes or Honda so it was impossible to get better place then 11th. Despite all of that I believe I made a good job among so good drivers.
Filip, I have information that you have already had one big premiere for czech racing…..
Yes, that’s truth…I started on the traditional final race of Formula 3 in Macau. It was fantastic experience and the first start for the Czech team there. It wasn’t easy, circuit in Macau is well known as quite difficult circuit, the reason that the circuit is placed in the centre of the city. Many people say it’s even more difficult then the famous circuit in the Monte Carlo.
We met in France (Circuit du Luc en Provence) during your test for BMW Challenge 2006. Do you speculate about touring cars?
No, sure not. 3 years ago I has been racing with Porsche GTR3 and it was the last test touring car until now. Since that time I was racing only with formulas and I think that it’s not worth to change cars with different conceptions. Only Tomas Enge or Jarek Janis has got the dowry to race with different conceptions within the one season.
I have already decided that I will race only in Formula 3 Euroseries this year. The test drive with BMW in Frace was only due to my father cooperation with them for a long time.
What do you think about BMW 1 Challenge?
In the respect of that it was the first functional test, I have to say that it was great. It is very powerful car with rear-wheel drive with very good performance behavior so you feel you can play with the car on the race track. During my racing in Formula 3 I had a chance to watch European Seat Cupra championship so it was possible to compare quality of both cars. Seat has got long history of the development and they’ve got great support of the Seat factory but I think that BMW Challenge could be a strong competitor for Seat soon.. I was genuinely surprised.
But you and your father had a lot of arguments on the final meeting, which went ahead after test day at the evening. Why?
It wasn’t meant as a criticism by any means, but we have got more experiences with formula’s parameters and it’s impossible to compare that with touring cars. So maybe it was the reason why we spoke more then others (smile). I think then the mechanics from Bervid Prodrive and Metalex found out the right compromise between our decisions and real demands for the touring cars. I think that BMW challenge will be really interesting dulcification of this season in Czech Republic.
