WestCoast Racing Team Manager James Nixon says he will be ‘disappointed’ if the Swedish team don’t score more points in Bahrain this weekend than they did in the TCR International Series season opener in Georgia.
Between them, drivers Gianni Morbidelli and Giacomo Altoè scored just 13 points in the first two races of the season in Rustavi, with a best result of seventh.
The results came despite Altoè having secured a reverse-grid pole position for the second race at the Georgian circuit.
Looking ahead to Bahrain, Nixon is targeting more improvements as the team get to grips with their new Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR cars.
“The first race of the year was a bit of a learning curve for us all – the teams and drivers – to be honest,” said Nixon. “We showed good pace in some of the sessions, but the wet races were completely new for us in the Golf. Whilst we can’t test between the races, the team has been busy analysing the data and that should help us move up through the field.
“Being a Grand Prix event, this is obviously a big race for us and our partners. Last year the team enjoyed a spell at the front of the field and we know we have two great drivers in Gianni and Giancomo; they’re both willing to work hard to accelerate our programme and that will give us the best chance of scoring solid points in both races.
“We’ve got 13 points on the board already and I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t add significantly to that tally this weekend.”
Practice will take place on Friday, with qualifying (11:00 local time / 09:00 BST) and race one (16:30 local time / 14:30 BST) on Saturday.