Lada expecting another tough weekend in Austria

The LADA Sport Lukoil team expect another difficult weekend at the Salzburgring circuit, a power circuit which is likely to favour the Citroëns and Chevrolets even more-so, and leave Honda a bit behind and Lada even farther, especially after a less-than-successful test programme last week at the Slovakiaring.

The team stayed behind to do more development work on the Granta Sport touring car after the washed out Slovakiaring race meeting, but were unable to get through everything that was planned on Rob Huff’s car, the only fully completed 2014-specification car, while James Thompson’s car, which has been struggling with a handling issue which the team still have not resolved, suffered further agony with engine problems.

“I only completed a handful of laps during the most recent test in Slovakia after suffering an engine failure,” said Thompson. “The team has a massive mountain to climb, so rather than fine-tuning, we need to make huge changes to the aero package and weight of the LADA Granta TC1, which doesn’t happen overnight.

“The Salzburgring is an old-school circuit that’s quite individual, as it’s pretty much two long straights punctuated by an exceptionally high-speed sixth-gear corner and a few interesting changes of direction. The track is set in a beautiful area in the middle of nowhere so it’s always a pleasure to race there. However, you need a car that’s fast in a straight line because it’s all about top speed and stability under braking. I’m expecting this weekend to be quite a struggle for us, although the weather is quite unpredictable and could play into our hands.”

The team are forced to hope for rain again to help balance out the differences between the Granta, which is two seconds off the pace of the points-leading Citroëns, but obviously not so much rain as to not be able to race at all, as was seen in Slovakia, with the flat-floor and larger tyres making the cars undriveable in standing water.

“The team is very much trying to extract the most from the car and those at the top are working hard to deliver new development parts,” said 2012 champion Rob Huff. “The car will be as it was in Slovakia for the WTCC’s Race of Austria and this is going to be perhaps the toughest circuits for us. Having said that, rain is in the forecast and we are certainly capable of matching the Chevrolets and Hondas in wet conditions.”

Although Thompson and Huff didn’t have the test that they were hoping for, Mikhail Kozlovskiy was able to get a few kilometres behind him, after suffering a terrible weekend at the Slokakiaring, missing the only race of the day with an engine issue and having limited running during practice and qualifying.

“I was happy to spend several days testing in Slovakia last week, because I wasn’t able to complete many laps during the Slovakian races,” he said. “Just before the test my engine was changed and worked without problems throughout the three days, so I was able to test my car at the Slovakiaring efficiently and compensate for the lack of laps during the race weekends in Hungary and Slovakia.”