Pierre-Yves Corthals believes that his 2017 Opel Astra TCR has been allocated too much weight as a result of the TCR Balance of Performance [BoP] tests, after he and DG Sport Compétition struggled for pace in Georgia.
The Belgian leaves the Rustavi International Motorpark with just four points to his name, after managing a best result of eighth in the weekend’s two races.
Corthals believes that Opel has been given too much BoP weight, at 40 kg, which makes it the second-heaviest TCR car behind the Audi RS3 LMS.
The 41-year-old feels that some of the other marques may have been sandbagging during the test at Adria in Italy last month, with Opel not having ‘played the game’ effectively.
“It was really a tough weekend for me and the whole team, because we received a lot of weight from the BoP,” said Corthals to TouringCars.Net. “It’s surprising, because we were the fastest at the BoP test and the car was really fast compared with the other ones.
“But maybe the other guys were sandbagging, and weren’t, so now the car is completely full of weight.
“It is also a game, but it is really difficult to find a good balance and a good setup with this weight, because it’s really heavy.”
Corthals believes the car should be capable of much stronger results, especially as the car has been completely overhauled since the 2016 season.
“The car is not the same as last year; it is black and white. Using the data from the Opel last year is not a good solution, because the car was a disaster; this year it is not the same car.”
Given the circumstances, Corthals adds that the changing conditions in Georgia, with race one being wet and race two being on a damp and drying track, did not help him either.
“We had some problems between the two races, because we didn’t have time to change the setup on the car, and we set the car up for the wet conditions in race one. For race two we didn’t have enough time to adjust the camber on the front, so after three laps my front tyres were destroyed.
“It was a tough weekend for us, difficult for the first event, and I hope that it will be better for us next weekend.”