Official Balance of Performance test concludes at Valencia
The second and final day of the TCR Balance of Performance test session at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia ended without incident, after Gianni Morbidelli’s dramatic crash on the first day yesterday, when a brake issue with the new Vuković Motorsport Renault Mégane TCR plunged him into the barriers at Turn 1.
Despite slight bruising, Morbidelli was back on track today and joined Dan Lloyd as the two of the series’ officially appointed test drivers put the cars through their paces.
Lloyd, who drove a SEAT León TCR during the last half of the 2017 TCR International Series season for Craft-Bamboo Racing, said: “It was exciting to drive all the cars and see the differences between them. We were busy with the programme set up by the TCR technical staff, especially because we had to deal with so many different manufacturers.
“I think we did a good job and went through everything that needed to be done. It was crucial to get used to each car very quickly. We had five or six laps on used tyres and then switched on new tyres, trying to be fast and consistent. Consistency was the priority. It was not a matter of setting the fastest lap, but of going through the same process with all cars: warming the tyres, respecting the track limits, set a consistent and steady pace.”
The cars at the test includes the Kissling Motorsport-developed Opel Astra TCR, the STARD K:Force Kia Cee’d TCR, the Peugeot 308TCR, the Vuković Motorsport Renault Mégane TCR, the Lada Vesta TCR, the Hyundai i30 N TCR, JAS Motorsport’s Honda Civic Type Rs, both the FK2 and new FK8, the Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR, the Audi RS 3 LMS, the SEAT León TCR, and the Romeo Ferraris Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR.
The TCR technical team, working with the FIA, will confirm the Balance of Performance measures for all of the cars which took part in the test in March, which will be used in all TCR series including the new WTCR, World Touring Car Cup.
