Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli admits that he is “utterly disappointed” with his results in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in Shanghai, after the Italian finished outside the points in both races.
Italian Morbidelli failed to crack the top ten at any point during the weekend, qualifying in 13th position as the second slowest Chevrolet driver. Morbidelli then went on to finish just outside the points in 11th in race one, before finishing 13th in race two as a result of a drive-through penalty for having earlier made contact with LADA’s Rob Huff.
“China has kind of taken us off base: we overachieved in Beijing, our car was more competitive than we expected and I even managed to reach Q3 and aim for a top three spot,” said Morbidelli, who had been amongst the best Chevrolet drivers just one week previously in Beijing. “The opposite is true as far as Shanghai is concerned.
“There’s not much to add about our weekend there: it’s been an utter disappointment. We were never there, not even for a blink of an eye. It’s like an enigma: we have no clues yet about the root of our sagging competitiveness! Now we have to go poring over charts and data hoping to find the right direction and the right answers to our bad weekend.”
The weekend, along with Argentina, was Morbidelli’s worst of the season. The 46-year-old was therefore disappointed not to have been able to post better results on an important weekend for his main sponsor Camozzi.
“I have to acknowledge that since the outset of the season I’ve never had the feel of digging in a hole as I did this weekend,” added Morbidelli. “That’s why I want to say loud and clear that I am deeply grateful to all the guests that have showed up to support me. Thanks to all Camozzi China’s guests and to Marco Camozzi himself that took the time to drop at the circuit – you’ve been my backstop and my relief in Shanghai. I was willing to post a good result to thank you all, unfortunately I could not succeed in this, and believe me, it wasn’t for lack effort.”
Team Principal René Münnich admitted that the team had struggled to find an ideal setup all weekend, which left them as the worst performing of the three Chevrolet teams.
“We tried to find the right setup for the cars the whole weekend, but we haven’t been lucky,” said Münnich. “So we were not able to score points this time, which is a real pity.”