Dušan Borković says that he is confused as to why the Hyundai cars have had their power reduced in TCR competition, saying that the Korean cars are not the fastest in a straight line and should be balanced in other ways.
The Serbian driver, who sits atop the series standings after the first round, qualified his i30 N in fifth position for Sunday’s first race at Zandvoort in The Netherlands.
But Borković believes that the measures taken against his car, including a reduction in engine power to 97.5% and a rise in ride height to 100 mm, are not proportionate to the cars strengths and weaknesses.
“The Nürburgring [WTCR races] showed that whilst Hyundai won the race they were slower in the race, and the Audi and Honda were really fast,” said Borković to TouringCars.Net. “I could understand maybe not changing the power, because the Hyundai is not the fastest on the straight and it doesn’t have much more power than the others.
“I saw the last race with [Jean-Karl] Vernay and he had a much faster car on the straight with the Audi, so I don’t know why they changed the power on the car. It’s completely stupid and the car is not faster on the straight.”
Borković also criticised the decision to raise the ride height on the Hyundais, which will see them run at 100 mm, some 30 mm higher than the majority of the field and 10 mm higher than the Hondas.
“I cannot understand the guy who made the calculation about [the ride height of] 2 or 3 cm more than the other cars, because it is 30% [higher]. It’s a huge difference and it affects the car a lot.
“In first practice I tried to find a setup because the dampers are doing something completely different. We changed something, but I still feel that it is not the car like it should be – the car is too high, and it dives too much.
“I ask what is the next step – maybe it is to go with one tyre less or something. You can change a million things, but what is the best way [to balance it out].”
Borković added that he hopes to let his driving do the talking, not wishing to dwell too much on the BoP situation.
“It’s not fair for me to cry, because I think all of us drivers have to be drivers, not girls. Other drivers are crying that Hyundai are running the sport, but Hyundai made a good car. For me they have to change something on their car, not to destroy the Hyundai.
“My aim here is to finish the races, maybe not on the podium, but I just want to finish because I have a lot of points and I want to avoid crashes.”