Photo: TCR Media

WestCoast Racing call for revised Balance of Performance

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WestCoast Racing endured a tough weekend, despite a podium result for Gianni Morbidelli after Target Competition’s Andrea Belicchi was excluded for not serving his drive through penalty during the race.

The Honda driver repeated several times that the Balance of Performance had been too heavy on the Honda, also considering the 30 kilos of success ballast he had to carry this weekend.

The Honda Civic TCR was imposed a 35 kilos ballast for using a racing gearbox, but all other models were allowed to reduce their ride height by 10 millimetres, which left the team disappointed.

“Friday’s test gave WestCoast Racing the opportunity to improve, but we were heavily penalised by the extra weight imposed on us by the Balance of Performance,” said Morbidelli. “It has been a strange weekend and I’m unhappy, but I have to thank my team for doing such an incredible job once again – the mechanics and my engineer work very hard, constantly pushing for performance, but we had no chance with the weight penalty. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in Portugal.”

Morbidelli also picked up a puncture in the accident at the start, which forced him to pit under Safety Car. The Italian then stormed up to fourth, which became third after Belicchi was excluded.

WestCoast Racing Team Principal, Greger Petersson echoed his driver’s words: “The BoP ‘correction’ and the extra weight we carry due to the sequential gearbox clearly swung the balance a bit too far in favour of the other brands involved in the TCR International Series – the SEAT domination in the races at Circuit Ricardo Tormo demonstrates that. We had no chance of competing, even if Gianni (Morbidelli) hadn’t been involved in the first-lap collision.

Nevertheless, we’re looking forward to a new weekend at a new playground in Portimao and we will remain positive. We certainly have some homework to do with regards to reliability, but this weekend was a good demonstration of damage control.”

Morbidelli is now second in the championship, 15 points shy of new leader Stefano Comini and his Target Competition SEAT León Racer.