Volvo set-up issues caused by lack of track time

Polestar Cyan Racing’s Volvo S60 TC1s struggled in yesterday’s qualifying at Termas de Río Hondo, but the blue cars found better pace on Sunday as Thed Björk finished one tenth off the points-scoring zone, despite dropping to last at the start following a tap.

Despite the encouraging progress, Björk believes the team dropped behind as they struggled to find the S60’s sweet spot, which he says isn’t enough in a world championship: “Our performance in the first race was really good,” said the Swede. “But if you get behind like we did in terms of set-up, it just isn’t enough in a world championship and I struggled in the second race where I just couldn’t get past. We didn’t achieve the results we hoped for but we gained valuable data that is very important for when we can start to test properly between races.”

Friday test sessions will be dropped for the remainder of the season and, as Volvo are in their first full season with the S60, they will suffer from the lack of track time more than others. Still, they believe the data they gathered is satisfying and will provide a good basis for next year.

“Our goal for the races was to gain data for next year and to gain on the front runners, something that we achieved and that I am pleased with,” said Robert Dahlgren. “I am really looking forward to the races in Japan.”

A pit stop to make some setup changes during the first race meant Dahlgren was able to shrink the gap to the front runners to six tenths, in contrast with more than two seconds suffered in qualifying.