James Nash hits out at Balance of Performance of the Volkswagen

Craft-Bamboo Racing’s James Nash has hit out at the Balance of Performance measures applied to Volkswagen, after the German marque romped to a 1-2-3 victory in race two in Belgium, and after Leopard VW driver Jean-Karl Vernay harried the Briton throughout race one, eventually hitting him wide with two laps to go.

The Volkswagen Golf TCRs are running 30kg lighter than the SEATs and Hondas in the TCR International Series after the Golfs struggled at the season opener, despite the car being based on the same MQB platform as the León TCR.

“The Golfs were so quick everywhere this weekend, not just on the straights, and given the way that they ran away with the reverse grid race two after starting from the front, once ahead there was clearly no getting back at them,” said Nash.

“We were told after Bahrain that the series organisers had given them the weight break because the Golf has a fundamental aerodynamic disadvantage to the other cars but, after qualifying on Friday I even read comments attributed to one of their drivers complaining about a SEAT holding him up in the fast parts of the lap. Hopefully, TCR will look again at the weight issue.”