Oschersleben weights see old BMW made heavier

The WTCC has confirmed the penalty ballasts for the next round at Oschersleben, with the performance of the old model BMW increased, despite the driver responsible not being there.

Chevrolet has been confirmed as the reference car, with the three rounds at Brno, Brands Hatch and Portimao confiring that the RML prepared Chevrolet Cruze is the fastest car in the championship.

The speed differential to the SUNRED & Zengo-Dension run SEAT León TDI’s and the newer model BMW 320si’s means all three will still run with 40kg penalty ballast at the German round.

The Chevrolet Lacetti will maintain a ballast of -20kg from it’s base weight, this despite the independents class victory.

The key change is the to the older model BMW 320si, as a result of West Surrey Racing’s strong performances with an old model BMW in these three rounds, anyone running a similar car will now run with +10kg penalty ballast, where it ran with -20kg at Portimao & Brands Hatch.

By anyone, this just means Kristian Poulsen. Poulsen took the independents’ victory in race one at Brno, and will now be just 30kg away from the rival newer BMW 320si’s in terms of penalty weight in Germany, despite being on average seven-tenths of a second slower than WSR’s Colin Turkington over the weekend.

West Surrey Racing will not be returning at Oschersleben due to their commitments in the British Touring Car Championship, and are yet to confirm if they’ll return at all this year.

BMW 320si’s with sequential gearboxes (namely, the No.16 Team Engstler entry of Andrei Romanov) will carry -20kg less penalty ballast, but has a higher default base weight as a regulation penalty for running with the sequential box.

Full Penalty Ballasts for Oschersleben
+40kg – Chevrolet Cruze
+40kg – SEAT León TDI
+40kg – BMW 320si (new model)
+10kg – BMW 320si (old model)
-20kg – Chevrolet Lacetti
-20kg – BMW 320si (sequential gearbox)