Photo: WTCC Media

Citroën to start the season with reduced weight

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The four independently-run Citroën C-Elysée WTCCs entered in this year’s World Touring Car Championship will start the season in Morocco slightly lighter than originally planned, due to dispensation granted by the FIA.

The French manufacturer’s cars all started last season with 80kg of compensation weight due to being the winning manufacturer model of the 2015 season, as stipulated in the WTCC’s sporting regulations.

After dominating the remainder of the season, they never shifted this weight, and carried 80kg throughout the course of the year due to being the fastest car at every race meeting.

With Citroën no longer entered as a manufacturer, the FIA has recalculated the performance of the car based on the top two privateer entries from 2016, Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton and Mehdi Bennani, and has decided to allow the cars to start the year with just 50kg of compensation weight.

“I think it would be unfair to have (Rob) Huff, Mehdi (Bennani), Tom (Chilton) and John (Filippi) to start the season with 80 kilograms when the two drivers and manufacturer that have been responsible for maximum weight are no longer there,” said WTCC promoter Francois Ribeiro.

“So the FIA has recalculated the whole 2016 season and made Pechito (José María López) and Yvan (Muller) totally transparent to see where that car would have been (without them).”

As a result of this change, the Citroën C-Elysée will be the lightest it’s ever been in the WTCC in Marrakech, after having started the 2014 and 2015 seasons on the then maximum of 60kg ballast as newly homologated models.

Honda, Chevrolet, Lada and Volvo will all start the year with no compensation weight, and will run at the base weight of 1,100kg during the first two race meetings at Marrakech and Monza.

Compensation weight for Race of Morocco

Car – Weight – Ballast
Citroën C-Elysée WTCC – 1,150kg – +50kg
Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 – 1,100kg – +0kg
Honda Civic WTCC – 1,100kg – +0kg
Lada Vesta WTCC – 1,100kg – +0kg
Volvo S60 TC1 – 1,100kg – +0kg