Duncan Ende set to be out in qualifying with new sequential gearbox SEAT

Icarus Motorsports’ Duncan Ende is looking forward to qualifying, despite missing the second free practice session after an off in the first practice at the Salzburgring. The American is now running with the Sadev sequential gearbox in place of SEAT’s Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG) on his León TCR.

The American driver skipped the last race at Monza as the team worked on the upgrade, with the change now meaning all of the Volkswagen-Audi Group cars in the series are running with the sequential box.

Ende finished the first session in 15th, just seven-tenths off the ultimate pace, and was set to improve even further before going wide and hitting the barriers at Turn 9.

“The difference is massive,” said Ende to TouringCarTimes. “We were planning on running this gearbox all year, and the difference of performance was undersold to me.”

The DSG-equipped cars get to run at a lighter weight and ride height under TCR’s Balance of Performance (BoP) to make up for the difference, but Ende explains it didn’t work as planned.

“Even with the BoP, the 2017 updates – new suspension, steering rack are all heavier, so I can’t get down to the BoP weight for the DSG car anyway,” he said.