Alex Morgan fighting boost problem on development weekend

Alex Morgan was propping up the time sheets in the Renault Mégane TCR in the first test of the weekend at Brands Hatch, with the Wolf-Power Racing team and Swiss car builder Vuković Motorsport working to diagnose a power issue with the car.

Morgan was 2.2 seconds off the pace at the end of the 30-minute warm up session, with a boost problem limiting his progress.

“We’re going through quite a development phase and we’ve come here with quite a few revisions and this is the first time we’ve tested them,” said Morgan to TouringCarTimes.

“We’ve cured some of the problems, but there are some new ones which have sprung up, so we’ve obviously not where we wanted to be.

“We have the team in Switzerland looking at all the data, as we have a problem where the car limits the boost to something well below the level we should be running at, so we need to get over that or we’re going to be dead slow in the straights. At the moment, it’s about half the boost it can run, and it’s proving pretty difficult to do a lap time.

“I didn’t even look at any lap times I was doing, I was more looking at the dials, so we’ve got one more session to test before we go into qualifying.”

The TCR Germany championship regular confirmed the team’s approach to its one-off TCR UK appearance this weekend is as a test session before the next round at Spielberg next weekend.

“Our focus is on the TCR Germany championship, and the next race is next weekend, and this was our only opportunity to test the car before that race with the revisions, so the fact I know this circuit and it’s local to me helps. It’d be great if we’d turned up and everything was perfect, but we’re not surprised that we’ve got a few little issues.

“(To be developing this car) is something completely different and exciting, because from a driver’s point of view they’re really taking onboard what I’m saying to improve drivability and the handling of the car. It’s nice to have a voice as part of the development. Ordinarily you buy a factory car and you get what you’re given, and you’re one of 40-50 people who have the same car, while here I feel lucky to be part of a development programme.”