Photo: WTCC Media

Roberto Ravaglia calls for revised independents’ class

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ROAL Motorsport Team Principal Roberto Ravaglia has called for a revised classification of what constitutes and independent team, and the restoration of prize money for that class, in light of the revised manufacturer push seen this year with Citroën joining the Championship.

Last season the World Touring Car Championship was dominated by independent teams, with a large proportion of the field also eligible to fight for the prize money on offer by the category’s title sponsor, Yokohama. This year, the Yokohama title is reserved for the TC2 class for older cars, which receive a race-by-race allocation instead of a prize fund.

Meanwhile the two independent Hondas in the TC1 class of Zengo Motorsport and Proteam Racing, and all six Chevrolets, are forced to find their own budget in full to compete against the works entries of Citroën, Lada and Honda.

“For a private Team in the WTCC like us, the budget you need for one season is very high, we are are not in the position to compete against the manufacturer teams, and the different in the lap times is too big, even when we’ve had 0 kg from the FIA for performance balance,” said Ravaglia to WTCC Blog.

“To be competitive we should test and RML should develop the car, but we don’t have enough budget. Eurosport should start to consider to split the Championship into private teams and manufacturer teams, and create the Independents’ Trophy with prize money as in the past,” he added.

Ravaglia was also posed the question as to whether he’s eyeing up a switch to Marcello Lotti’s TC3 International Series, which has announced itself as a low cost formula for touring car racing.
“At the moment there is no an official communication on how the TC3 will be run and which cars could participate, so we should wait to have more information to have an opinion,” he said.

“Lotti has good experience and he has done very well in the past, for sure he will build up a competitive Championship.

“ROAL is (competing in) three different championships in 2014, WTCC, Blancpain Endurance Series and Blancpain Sprint…so we are always looking at all the opportunities, but of course we will try to be in the WTCC in 2015.”