Hyundai MSA, the team representing the South Korean automaker Hyundai in the TCR South America 2026, will, for the first time, have a complete team this season. Gabryel Romano, an 18-year-old from São Paulo, debuts as the fourth driver this weekend, completing the grid with Argentinians Néstor Girolami, Camilo Trappa, and Diego Ciantini. After the first two rounds of the year, the team leads the overall drivers’ and teams’ standings of the competition. The race takes place at the Interlagos Racetrack, in São Paulo, on Sunday.
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“Being alongside Hyundai MSA this year is a very important opportunity for my career. TCR is an extremely competitive category, and being able to race at Interlagos, which is a track I know well, helps a lot at the start of this season, especially as it’s my first year in the category. The expectation is to evolve with each session, collaborate with the team that has achieved great results, and make the most of this experience,” comments Gabryel.
Born in 2007, Gabryel debuted in karting at the age of seven. At 15, he joined the Porsche Cup as the youngest driver in the category, a feat he repeated in NASCAR Brasil, where he debuted at 16 years old. Last year, he once again made his mark in the competition’s history by winning, in the Challenge category, the first edition of the NASCAR Brasil Cascavel 100-mile night race.
The Hyundai MSA team arrived this year in TCR South America, sporting the colors of the Hyundai N brand for the first time in a full season. With four Hyundai Elantra N TCR cars in the 2026 disputes, it is one of the largest teams on the grid.
“Hyundai has a history of prominent participation in major motorsports categories worldwide. TCR South America is another opportunity for us to reinforce our presence on South American tracks, bringing the public in the region closer to our high-performance sports models, such as the Elantra N TCR. With the arrival of Gabryel, a young man with extremely high potential, we have a complete team to continue fighting at the front for victories in the competition, reinforcing our commitment to motorsport and in conjunction with the highly acclaimed Copa Hyundai HB20,” states Cristiano Mineiro, Executive Marketing Manager at Hyundai Motor Brasil.
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At Hyundai MSA, Gabryel joins Argentinian drivers Néstor Girolami, whose resume includes 10 seasons of the TCR World Tour and the 2022 runner-up title; Camilo Trappa, Rotax Buenos Aires Senior champion in 2024 and winner of the TCR South America 2026 debut round in Curvelo (MG); and Diego Ciantini, TC Argentina champion in 2019 and son of former South American driver José Carlos Ciantini, who also competed in Turismo Carretera, the main category of the country (Argentina), for 20 years.
Third round will feature exciting double-driver battles
This weekend, at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, in Interlagos, TCR South America holds its third round with a different format from the others. The competition will consist of a single one-hour race, with each car alternating two drivers: one official team driver for the season and a special guest.
Gabryel Romano will share the cockpit of his Hyundai Elantra N TCR with Alberto Catucci, two-time champion of the Copa Hyundai HB20 in 2021 and 2023. Camilo Trappa shares the wheel with Alex Ley, a 17-year-old who was runner-up in British TCR in 2023 and is the current leader of TCR Europe. Diego Ciantini will partner with Rodrigo Lugón, runner-up in TC2000 Argentina in 2019. Meanwhile, Néstor Girolami will be joined by Gaetano Di Mauro, eight-time Kart Brasil champion between 2012 and 2022, and Stock Car runner-up in the 2025 season.
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