Sirish Vissa: "Close to extract utmost potential of Vento race car"

Volkswagen signed a long-term partnership with Indian tyre giant MRF at the start of 2016 and to accommodate the new brand several changes was made to the race-spec Vento, including dampers and suspension geometry.

Along with it, an unrelated change was also made to the exhaust system, which has resulted in cars that are significantly louder than their predecessors.

To add that, the lap times have already tumbled by over three seconds along during the first round at Kari Motor Speedway of the 2016 season.

Vissa, a popular figure in the paddock, sat down with Motorsport.com’s Rachit Thukral to discuss the new season of the Vento Cup plus the future of Volkswagen’s motorsport arm in India.

This year, Volkswagen is using MRF Tyres. Do you think you are now able to extract the full potential of the Vento Cup race car?

Well, for sure we are extracting more out of the car than we’ve had in the past. So, we had a lot of work to do once we get out where the grip levels were of the tyres.

We actually had to go back and revalve the dampers, we’ve got a slightly different spring on it, we’ve got rear anti-roll.

So, we’ve done a lot of work on the chassis side to extract the best out of the tyres. But yes, we are getting closer to the potential of the car.

The cars are sounding much louder this year. Has the exhaust been tuned just for the 'show'?

We actually have a different exhaust system which gives a little bit efficiency in terms of the engine as well. And the fortunate side of that is the car sounds racier.

This year Volkswagen has introduced the India-specific Ameo sedan. So can we switch to an Ameo Cup two-three years down the line?

Why not? Because when we did the Vento Cup, one of the reasons for the switch was that this was car was designed with India in mind. We are always open to exploring new ideas. So you never know.

How can you bring more young drivers into the series? Should the age limit be scrapped?

We don’t have a minimum age limit. So, technically if you have a karting license and you are doing reasonably well in karting, then we’ll take you in and work with you.

I don’t want to scrap the upper age limit because we need to get the next generation motorsport stars.

Looking at your 2015 champion Anindith Reddy, what’s your assessment of him, who has made a successful transition to single-seaters this year? 

I can proudly say that in the last years that the guys that have become champions have really proved their mettle [the 2014 Polo R Cup champion Karthik Tharani won the MRF F1600 series in 2015].

Whatever the knowledge they’ve gained in racing in our championship they are applying to everything else they do. And we are proud of that.

Now we are establishing ourselves in a way that people will automatically understand that if somebody comes through our programme, they are already at a certain level. And these guys are proving that in very nice way.

Moving on to the business side, what kind of correlation does Volkswagen have been its motorsport and R&D divisions?

We work with the R&D side because a lot of the knowledge that we gain - we are pushing the car to the limit.

Some of the knowledge we gain, we are able to transfer to R&D they can improve on the next generation of cars.

Finally, Volkswagen suffered a huge jolt due to the 'diselgate' scandal, was there ever a possibility that the Vento Cup will have to be scrapped in the wake it?

I can assure you of this much. For us, motorsport is in our DNA. It is something that will always be in our DNA. And we believe in motorsport as a tool to promote the brand.

It is unusual circumstances for us and there is definitely an impact, but we are committed that we are involved in motorsport and we are here.