Lynk & Co Cyan Racing withdraws from Vallelunga on safety grounds

The Lynk & Co Cyan Racing team will not take part in the two FIA WTCR races at Vallelunga after taking the decision to withdraw from the meeting on safety grounds.

The defending champions had called for action from WTCR stakeholders following a number of tyre issues in Friday testing and the opening practice session on Saturday – with Yvan Muller suffering a high-speed off in the latter after a front left failure.

Although the team was able to take part in qualifying after simulations showed that a shorter run on track was possible, the team remained concerned about whether the current tyres would be able to run a race distance considering the weight that the 03 TCR is now carrying.

At 1,355kg, the car is the heaviest on the grid by some margin – 50kg heavier than the Honda Civic, and 80kg heavier than the Hyundai Elantra – leading to the team feeling that any issues were happening ‘earlier, more frequently and severely compared to the other cars’.

Despite discussions following qualifying, no solution was found to resolve the situation, with the team taking the decision to withdraw from Sunday’s two races.

“Our decision has been taken as I don’t believe that we can complete a full distance in a safe way,” Fredrik Wahlén, team manager of Cyan Racing said.

“We have provided information to all WTCR stakeholders that the combined weight and tyre situation makes for an impossible equation.

“It is not the decision we wanted to take, but a suitable solution to this issue has not been found since the start of the Vallelunga weekend until now.”