Following its maiden FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) victories last season, Lada Sport has announced that it is to partner with Italian engineering and race specialist, Hexathron Racing Systems.
The two parties are now focusing on the 2015 season, and continuing development of the all-new Lada Vesta challenger (above) that is set to replace the outgoing Granta WTCC car.
Lada states that the progress made with its Granta in 2014 was the result of a huge collaborative effort by Lada Sport, Oreca and Hexathron Racing Systems. Marco Calovolo, CEO of Hexathron is to remain as one of the Russian outfit’s lead technicians, and as race engineer for James Thompson.
“I’m really happy to continue our collaboration with Lada Sport and I want to thank Viktor Shapovalov and Lada Sport,” said Calovolo. “The team has increased its overall quality and performance since 2009, and a lot of hard work brought us wins in China and Macau last season. The Vesta WTCC is another step forward. Hexathron Racing Systems’ work is not only on the track with the team and its driver, James Thompson, Rob Huff, Mikhail Kozlovskiy, but it continues in our office where we study upgrades and new solutions for the racecars. One year ago, the target was to achieve Lada Sport’s first win and we got it. For 2015, we want to stay on top in every race and we have everything to be there.”
The 2015 FIA World Touring Car Championship season will take in twelve rounds. It is set to kick off in Argentina in March, before concluding in November at Losail, Qatar.
