Photo: Citroën Racing/WTCC Media

Analysis of a strategy failure: Citroën and Honda get it wrong in Hungary

The opening race of the World Touring Car Championship in Hungary saw one of the most strategic blunders made in the WTCC’s history, with both the factory Honda and Citroën teams opting for slick tyres just as the rain began to fall at the Hungaroring circuit, relegating all of the teams’ drivers outside of the points positions by the chequered flag.

The drivers all stood by their decision based on the facts that they had in hand at the time, with four-time champion Yvan Muller perhaps explaining best as to why the call wasn’t as obvious when you look with the benefit of hindsight.

“Of course it is easy to say now it was the wrong choice, but if you look at the top ten cars on the grid there were three choices; some went for full wets, some full slicks, some slicks and wet, so that shows it was uncertain,” explained Muller.

“The weather forecast told us there was no rain anymore, and we followed that, and that was our mistake. If the rain hadn’t started, it was the right choice, but unfortunately the rain started, so it was the wrong choice.”

In the decision making process, López explains the buck finally falls with the driver to make the call, and in his case, it was also the wrong decision, with the 2014 and 2015 champion finishing down in 14th position.

“In our case and everybody’s case, the driver is the most important part of the car. I felt we could go on slicks. Of course it was the wrong call, but it started to rain just as the cars were put on the ground. It’s a mistake, we will try to learn from that. In my case today, I made a call, I thought we could go with slicks, but I was wrong.”

rain_16042502

Honda’s Tiago Monteiro echoed the Citroën drivers comments, taking some consolation in the fact that both Citroën and Honda made the same “wrong call” and therefore didn’t affect the drivers’ championship, but unfortunately the manufacturers’ championship did not play so well for Honda, with the Citroën satellite Sébastien Loeb Racing team scoring a 1-2 with Mehdi Bennani and Tom Chilton, both of which started on wets.

As a result, Citroën scored the maximum possible 43 points for the French manufacturer, while Honda’s highest scorer was their sole privateer entry, Zengő driver Ferenc Ficza in eighth position, helping Citroën take the lead of the standings for the first time this year, and are now 40 points clear of Honda.

“They have a strong customer team which helps in these conditions,” said William De Braekeleer, motorsport manager at Honda to TouringCarTimes. “Being a customer you would easily take the choice that is not evident for the others. 80% were sure it would dry, so if you were a privateer you’d take wets. Zengő did it as well and they finished as the top Honda. Of course now we have to work hard to recover the lost ground.”

As strategy calls go, those who made the call at the five-minute board to start on wets were perceived by most to have made the wrong decision, but were in the right by the time the formation lap had begun. Just one driver who’d made the slicks call on the grid realised his mistake and ducked into the pit-lane at the end of the second formation lap, and that was touring car veteran Gabriele Tarquini.

Despite relegating himself to a pit-lane start, the 2009 champion managed to carve through the slick-shod field, and even past a number of drivers who’d started on full wets, to finish fifth by the end of the race.

tarquini_16042501

“I was quite sure that the slick tyres on the warm up lap was the right call, but on the formation lap it started raining,” said Tarquini to TouringCarTimes. “The first lap it was on the limit (of changing), and in the middle of the second lap I decided to enter so I informed the guys and came in.”

The team didn’t back his call, but the experienced Italian overrode the team and came in for wets, which proved to be the best possible solution to the wrong call on the grid.

“They didn’t agree, but I was convinced it was the right choice,” explained Tarquini. “They answered “No, are you crazy, you’ll lose a lot of time,” but it was quite impossible to go at the start, and it was the right decision.”

Citroën ended up with their worst result since joining the championship in 2014, with Yvan Muller and José María López finally coming in for wet tyres on lap eight, but too late to make a difference and would finish a lap down in 13th and 14th positions.

Honda also lost out, with neither Rob Huff or Tiago Monteiro making the points while Norbert Michelisz had also made the wrong tyre call with a mixed slick and wet set-up, but with a turbo issue on the formation lap the strategy call was redundant in his case.

The most fortunate were Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers Mehdi Bennani and Tom Chilton. Bennani had started from pole and led the way unchallenged throughout, while Chilton was able to work his way from tenth to second in his wet-equipped Citroën C-Elysée. The privateer Chevrolets of John Filippi and René Münnich also put on overtaking displays and scored points by having picking the right tyres, even though both drivers were given drive-through penalties for incidents during the race. The young Corsican and the older German managed to drive back past the struggling Citroëns and Hondas as they persevered with their slick selection.

There’s a reason they say wet races are often the best. I imagine the Seattle Touring Car Championship must be amazing.