Álvaro Barba: Here to win!

With the GT Open season reaching its half way point at Brands Hatch last weekend, we took the opportunity to catch up with Villois Racing’s Álvaro Barba, whose impressive stint in race two enabled the team to give the V12 Vantage Super GT its maiden win.                                                                       

AMRteams: You had a difficult start to the weekend at Brands Hatch, missing all of second practice. It must feel rewarding to come away from the weekend with such a strong result?

Álvaro Barba: “The weekend started very bad, because we could not be out in the second free practice, also I didn’t drive at all in free practice. So finally we have a great result for us and all team. It's very important this result because now we are fighting for championship.”

AMRteams: You’ve switched to the new V12 Vantage Super GT after starting the season with the V8 GT2 car, how different is the car to drive?

AB: “Simply the car is practically like V8 GT2. It improved some things, but the big change was the engine, it has a little bit more power.”

AMRteams: After an impressive start to the season you’re now second in the Championship, how do you rate your chances of taking the title?

AB: “Sincerely we are here to win the championship. But if I'm honest, there is a high level in this championship and very good teams. It'll be very difficult, but we are working to get it.”

AMRteams: GT Open looks to be really competitive this year.

AB: “Yes, really it's a fantastic championship, I think that you can find on the grid the best GT drivers in the world. I won this championship two years ago and It was very difficult, and this year we can see the first five in the championship are very close.”

AMRteams: Looking ahead to the next race at Paul Ricard, how do you think the team will perform?

AB: “ Sincerely It's a good track for me, I like much the track and I know good. It's very soon for to say something about the car, but fortunately we have 3 hours of test on Thursday afternoon, so we'll see.”

Brands Hatch Race Two


Villois Racing are back in action this weekend at Paul Ricard where they’ll be hoping to ragain the championship lead.  For more information and live streaming visit GTopen.net

Thank you to Álvaro Barba to giving us his time.

Image: Richard Leach