Only two of LADA’s new Vesta World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) challengers will be present at the first round of the season in Argentina, after the Russian marque has run out of time to complete the third car for Mikhail Kozlovskiy.
TouringCars.Net has been told that only the cars for Brits Rob Huff and James Thompson have been completed, and that Kozlovskiy’s car will be ready for the second round of the season in Marrakech in April.
The team have also ruled out the possibility of Kozlovskiy taking to the circuit in one of last year’s Granta WTCC models, despite the car conforming with this year’s TC1 regulations.
The new Vesta WTCC only made its test début a couple of weeks ago in Magny-Cours, and the team were not present for the official WTCC media day in Barcelona. The absence of a third car is this a further hindrance to the team, who are the only ones heading into 2015 with a brand new car.
Kozlovskiy will thus miss the opportunity to complete a full calendar in his third season in the WTCC, meaning that 2014 is his only full season to-date after the young Russian was drafted in to replace Aleksei Dudukalo in 2013 following a controversial qualifying crash with team-mate Thompson.