WestCoast Racing call for reliability work on Honda Civic TCR

Gianni Morbidelli was hugely disappointed after failing to finish in both races at Imola, Italy. The WestCoast Racing driver had a power steering issue in the first race, and was forced to retire with braking problems in the second heat.

“There is not much to say, it is really absurd to lose races like that,” said the Italian to TouringCarTimes. “The WestCoast Racing boys should take no blame, they did an absolutely incredible job allowing me to take part in the second race, I have never seen anything like it. They did a miracle, but it’s not enough when the car shows it is unreliable. If you want to win championships you just can’t have these problems.”

When asked if he expects JAS to work on the issue to finally solve the power steering issue, as it came up as early as Buriram last year, Morbidelli said: “Of course if you want to win you have to work, if you are happy with this situation when you rely on luck to finish a session then you can also continue like this. It has happened many times before, it’s not useful to do the list, but it started in Buriram and the problem has still been there for eight months.”

With a very fast track in Salzburgring, Austria, next up for the TCR International Series, the WestCoast Racing driver acknowledged he does not feel safe in the Honda Civic TCR: “I must not get in the car with the feeling of being scared that the steering can lock up and I may fly off the track. I don’t want to race like that, it must be fixed, that’s all. It’s not about WestCoast, they are even too good, they are doing wonders.”

“It can’t continue like this,” added team owner Greger Petersson to TouringCarTimes. “We need to have a car that is reliable and works without issues. They (Honda) said they worked on it, but we still have the same issues, and it also happened on Mikhail (Grachev)’s car in the first race, although he was able to reset the system, whereas it didn’t help with Gianni. If they don’t give us a reliable car we will call it a day, we can’t continue like this.”

Despite winning the second race with newcoming driver Mikhail Grachev, Petersson says the morale in the team is very low: “We have proved today we can turn everyone into a race winner. That is not to the demerit of Mikhail of course, I’m just saying we can win if we have the tools. An unreliable car is impossible to turn into a championship winner. We fixed Gianni’s car and got him back out, we were even able to let Alain Menu start from the pit lane, which I honestly thought was an impossible job. I still think it is impossible, and yet the boys did it. What can I add? Something must be done. It would have been easy for Gianni to leave as the points’ leader, and instead all this happens. We are destroyed.”

Morbidelli is now third in the championship, but went from one to 31 points behind leader Pepe Oriola.