New ballast rules for mid-season car changes

At a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, a change to the penalty ballast system will see entries get the maximum weight if they change model in 2011, as the FIA attempts to address some of the problems with the penalty weight system which plagued this year’s championship.

The decision reads:
“From January 2011, any competitor in the FIA World Touring Car Championship who changes the model of their car will have the maximum compensation weight imposed at the event immediately following the change.”

“Subsequently, the competitor will carry the weight relating to that model.”

As a result, if a team changes specification of their vehicle for a driver, that car will automatically pick up the maximum possible penalty ballast of 40kg.

Article 84.a) of the FIA WTCC sporting regulations already states that once a team moves to a newer homologation of vehicle, they are unable to go back to the older model, however with more variations for the purposes of calculation performance ballast created throughout this season, it became possible for competitors to move between these variations and pick up the benefit in ballast allocation.

If this rule had been in force in 2010, it would not have been a temptation for the BMW entrants to switch to the older aerodynamic package on the 320si at Brands Hatch, which allowed Wiechers-Sport and Engstler Motorsport to drop 70kg from their ballast to match West Surrey Racing and Poulsen Motorsport, which were already running the old model.

At Brands Hatch, BMW Team RBM were refused permission to run this older aero package due to Article 84.a), and Wiechers-Sport and Engstler were told to return to the new model from the following round, with Engstler Motorsport formally warned when they attempted to repeat the move at Oschersleben.

BMW Team RBM would also have not been able to run at a lighter weight at Okayama with the sequential gearbox (assuming the gearbox had been homologated), however they would have been able to run at a newly calculated weight at Macau, but at a weight which would have taken into account their results in Japan.