ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel, who will be acting as a co-commentator for Eurosport this weekend, admits that the damage to his TC1 Chevrolet Cruze from Morocco will cause “quite a dent in my budget for this year”.
Coronel will not be racing in this weekend’s World Touring Car Championship event in France due to the significant damage caused to his car in race two in Morocco. The car has now been sent from the Le Castellet circuit in France to RML in the UK, where it is hoped the chassis will be repaired in time for the third round in Hungary.
“Those two crashes already caused my car to be shortened on the front end quite a lot, but because Yvan Muller could not avoid me anymore when I bounced back from the wall, my rear end also disappeared,” explained Coronel. “Fortunately I didn’t get injured myself, but the damage to the car is massive, adding up to around 200,000 euros, causing quite a dent in my budget for this year.
“On top the body structure was damaged so we need a new one. Because of the very limited time between the two race weekends we are not able to repair the car in time. Meaning I will definitely not start in France. My next race will be at the Hungaroring in Hungary, beginning of May,” added Coronel.
However the Dutchman, who has until this weekend been entered into every WTCC race of the modern era, will still be present at the event in France. For the first time, Coronel will act as a co-commentator for Eurosport alongside Martin Haven on the English-language feed.
“Immediately after my return from Marrakech I was asked by Eurosport to act as co-commentator next to Martin Haven this weekend to do the live report for the two races for Eurosport International,” explained Coronel, who has already proven himself to be extremely media savvy through his popular YouTube and Twitter channels.
“[It is] great of course! In Marrakech, and also on an occasion last year, I reported live from inside my car for Eurosport in the race preview during the warm-up lap. It seems Eurosport liked the way I did that because now they offered me the chance to still take part in this WTCC weekend, be it in a role at the side line.”
Following RML’s work on the shell and chassis of Coronel’s car, the vehicle will be returned to ROAL Motorsport before the team head to the third meeting of the year in Hungary.