TCR mid-year review: Thrilling battle as series heads to Asia

The TCR International Series heads into the Asian leg of its 2016 season with a very close fight for the championship, and after delivering some spectacular racing during the first seven weekends of the year.

TouringCarTimes’ Pietro Casillo takes a deep look into the championship, focussing on the strengths of the drivers and the challenges they will have to face in order to clinch the title at the season finale at the Guia Race of Macau.

The second season of the TCR International Series has been both spectacular and entertaining. Three different models have fairly shared the wins to-date, with SEAT and Honda equal on five victories and four for Volkswagen. The addition of new teams and drivers has further raised the level of the championship, creating interesting racing and unpredictable results, much more so than last year.

Balance of Performance makes for entertaining races

One of the key elements to the TCR concept is that no manufacturer entries are possible, and each model must have equal chances compared to the other in terms of competitiveness via Balance of Performance. At the beginning of the season it was clear SEAT had done an outstanding job with their update on the title-winning León Cup Racer, making it more aerodynamically efficient and fitting a racing gearbox to it. In fact, the Spanish car won both races in Bahrain in the hands of 2015 championship runner-up Pepe Oriola.

From then on, the technical bureau decided to lend a helping hand to the cars which were not on par with the SEATs, taking weight out of the sister car, Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR. The immediate result was three podium finishes at Estoril, Portugal for Leopard Racing’s Stefano Comini and Jean-Karl Vernay. Despite a lack of aerodynamic efficiency, the Golfs are able to challenge for wins and the ultimate glory, as Comini’s current lead in the championship testifies.

Honda need to up their game

Although the Honda Civic TCR has proved it is able to win, the car doesn’t look ready to challenge for the championship. It must be said that WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli has had an unfortunate streak of bad luck through accidents, last but not least in Sochi last time out while fighting for the podium, but the power steering failures – which now seem to have been solved – surely robbed the Italian of more points-scoring opportunities earlier in the year. A double DNF at his home round in Imola where victory seemed certain is a weight he will have to carry all the way up to Macau.

The positive side is that Mikhail Grachev seems to have finally found his feet at the wheel of the WCR Honda, scoring three wins in four weekends and proving he has the potential to be a front-runner consistently after jumping across from Engstler Motorsport. Aku Pellinen’s win in Spa-Francorchamps further confirmed the speed of the Hondas, but they will need to deliver on a regular basis if they are to fight for the crown, especially with at least six drivers in with a realistic chance of fighting for the title in Macau.

Pepe Oriola puts on strong performances, but watch out for James Nash!

Ever since the Bahrain weekend, it looked like last year’s runner-up Pepe Oriola could do even better this season. In fact, the Spaniard won three races so far, without losing the ability to score consistently. Oriola, who recently took his degree in Spain, had a troubled weekend in Austria, where he scored no points, which was the only shadow in the bright season the Craft-Bamboo driver has lived so far.

One must mention the outstanding job done by SEAT with the renewed León, which is surely helping the Lukoil-backed driver, but reliability is still not quite perfect for the Spanish car. Oriola was able to overcome the issues so far and is fully in the title battle with Stefano Comini, just like last year, and team-mate James Nash.

Speaking of the Brit, his consistency is frankly impressive. Like most of the other drivers he had a bad weekend, in his case in Italy. Nevertheless, when he was able to finish races, with his worst result being a pair of eighth place finishes. Six podiums, including a win at Estoril, confirm the Craft-Bamboo driver is a very smart driver. No doubt he is fast, but he surely could do with some more points collected in qualifying. He is probably the best at ‘reading’ the races and acting accordingly, and only a penalty in Race 1 at Sochi demoted him from the lead of the championship to a close third. Don’t count him out!

Stefano Comini shows more maturity in hunt for his second title

Surely last year’s title was a big monkey off the back of Stefano Comini, as the Swiss driver fought for budget for most of last year. The Leopard Racing project and the very good relationship he has with race engineer Charles Hodge gave him the extra punch he needed in 2015. A master at handling pressure, the Swiss has a more mature approach and takes disappointments more serenely when they come his way.

Perhaps initially protected by the label of ‘underdog’ – despite carrying the number 1 on his door – due to the difficulties of the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR on the straights, Comini will need to prove he can withstand even more pressure now that the German cars have found their sweet spot. It will be a 2015 Macau Race 2 all year long for the defending champion.

Leopard Racing team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay is also in the frame for the title challenge. Undoubtedly quick and with two race wins under his belt, his international wins and championships made him an interesting and prestigeous addition to the championship even before he turned a wheel. A former Red Bull Racing junior driver and 2010 Indy Lights champion, the Frenchman probably needs more consistency, as he has been involved, either actively or as a victim, in too many incidents during the races. As a former single-seater and GT driver, Vernay is surely allowed some more time and experience to find the limits of touring car racing, where contact is inevitably part of the game. His speed surely makes him a title contender.

Mat’o Homola unsurprisingly in the title battle

B3 Racing Team Hungary have a very strong driver line-up. While Serbia’s Dusan Borkovic is yet to find his way to the top step of the podium, with many incidents having left the tall driver with a giant 72-point gap from the championship leader. Two pole positions still confirm, if ever needed, that he has the speed to challenge for the top positions, but it is time for the former European champion to deliver.

Mat’o Homola has been more consistently in the points. He also took a pole position and a race win, stepping three more times on the podium. The Slovakian was always going to be a title contender as he had the experience in the SEAT and has proven his speed in the ETCC, but a bad weekend in Sochi left him 23 points behind Comini in the championship. A few more wins could help as he faces the mammoth Macau challenge with no experience at the Guia circuit.

Attila Tassi also seems to be improving both in terms of speed and race-craft after a troubled start to the season, including crashes in Bahrain and Belgium. The Hungarian teenager scored his maiden podium in Russia, although his talent needs more time to mature.

Engstler’s Volkswagens still struggling after slow start

Liqui Moly-backed Team Engstler were the first team to obtain a win for Volkswagen when the Golf GTI TCR made its debut last year. Development driver Pol Rosell won the reversed-grid second race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria in 2015. The team started the season with Mikhail Grachev and Davit Kajaia at the wheel of their Volkswagen Golfs. The Georgian policeman is tenth in the championship, with just one podium finish in Imola. The Russian, who had scored a single point in Bahrain during the first three weekends of the season, went on to win three races with WestCoast Racing, with the German team now fielding race-by-race entries following Grachev’s departure.

Team Engstler need to up their game, as they face tough “internal” competition from Leopard Racing, who are fighting for the championship and are therefore demonstrating the quality of the Golf GTI TCR. Surely having a TCR newcomer, as talented as he is, such as Kajaia doesn’t help the speed of development for the German team. Given their touring car pedigree, they are very likely to bounce back once they get to the bottom of the issues plaguing the white Volkswagens.

Steady progress confirms Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR’s potential

The Romeo Ferraris operation in the TCR International Series started rather slowly, as the team got to grips with their self-built Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR. A welcome and interesting addition at the start of the season, the Alfa skipped Spa-Francorchamps and Imola in order to concentrate on development, and the results on their return are encouraging.

A series of tweaks in terms of aerodynamics, engine and look, made the car more pleasant to see on track and much more interesting on a technical level. Despite their 1,750cc engine, Mario Ferraris claims they have now reached a point where they are basically on par with the other cars in terms of power, although they still need to get on top of their traction problems.

Petr Fulín was a very important addition to the project, and the 13 points scored so far by the European Touring Car Cup champion, together with his experience with the SEAT León TCR, make the future look brighter for the Italian cars. Team-mate Michela Cerruti, who started the development of the Alfa in November last year, initially had some problems as she suffered with the car’s poor performances. Further issues, along with some bad luck, mean we haven’t seen her full potential, although she needs to improve her qualifying pace. A pair of remarkable races in Oschersleben kind of showed what Cerruti is capable of when the circumstances allow her to fight.

Bring Opel and Subaru back!

The season had started with the welcome addition of the Opel Astra TCRs, in the hands of Jordi Oriola and Andrea Belicchi with Target Competition. Despite scoring points at the curtain raiser with the Spaniard, Opel elected to withdraw to work on the car and have not returned to the track since. Target Competition expect the Astras to return at Sepang, Malaysia, but it is difficult to understand why their potential looks to be so underestimated when Pierre-Yves Corthals and Fréd Caprasse scored two podiums during TCR Benelux’s season opener at Spa-Francorchamps.

Top Run decided to withdraw the Subaru WRX STi TCR after Portugal and have also not been back since. With another car built and the Asian market obviously very important for the Japanese brand, hopefully Top Run will be able to return for the final four rounds of the championship, although their future in the TCR International Series looks uncertain.

More brands coming up will spice things up

Besides the variety already seen in TCR, more brands are developing new machines to open a customer programme.

Peugeot made a one-off appearance in the TCR International Series at Spa-Francorchamps, failing to score any points. The 308 is down on power due to its small engine size at just 1.6 litre capacity, but the car may be tweaked in the future to see if it can be competitive against the bigger 2.0T machines.

Kia have also announced a TCR programme, with the Cee’d GT being developed by Manfred Stohl’s engineering company STARD. Late in April, Kia announced the car would be made available to customers later this year. According to STARD, there is high demand for cars on an international level. As Kia are part of a group owned by the Hyundai Motor Company, it cannot be excluded there will be a synergy similar to that seen with the SEAT León and the Volkswagen Golf GTI.

After last year’s difficult effort, the Ford Focus TCR project has been under development for most of this year, this time by FRD Motorsport in lieu of the now defunct Onyx Race Engineering. Wind tunnel testing had started in April, and the car may rejoin the championship during the Asian leg of the 2016 season.

Rumours have also surfaced around an Audi Sport customer programme. Talking about the future of V8 Supercars, former Audi Sport Customer Racing boss Romolo Liebchen had expressed interest in developing an Audi A3 saloon for TCR. In a recent interview with dailysportscar.com, current boss Chris Reinke re-iterated the German marque’s interest in TCR.

Mercedes and BMW, with the new front-wheel drive 1 Series, might also be interested in the project. Audi’s decision to enter the championship may have an influence on their direct competitors’ choices.

TCR healthy and growing

The championship is even more entertaining than last year’s, partly because more high-profile drivers chose TCR in 2016. With more cars coming up there is even more scope for the concept to grow, and several national series based on the same regulations as the International Series will provide even more drivers and teams.

31 drivers in total have already taken part in the international series, with more expected to come in the Asian leg of the season. The championship has already grown since last year, which can only be positive for touring car racing in general.