Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram says that “a lack of all-round grip” was the reason for his drop-off in pace in second practice of the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone.
Ingram, who currently sits second in the championship behind Colin Turkington, finished 12th in the opening practice session and struggled in FP2 to place 25th.
He told TouringCars.Net that although 66kg of success ballast is hurting his pace, a drastic setup change was the reason for his struggles in the second practice session.
“It’s not the progress we were after! The day is not going forward at the minute,” said Ingram.
“The weight is making it feel like hard work, but we’re trying things to try to get the most out of it. And what we tried in that one (FP2) just didn’t work.
“So we’ll go back on it and make some other changes we’d like as well, and hopefully we’ll be in good shape for qualifying.”
When asked what changes had been made to his Toyota Avensis, Ingram explained that he was lacking grip and was trying to find a better balance.
“We’ve made a lot of changes across the car, just to try to improve the balance of the car more than anything else. Just struggling with a lack of all-round grip really.
“We just need to try to improve that really and we’ll see where we end up.”
As has come to be expected at the 1.6-mile national layout, the margins are extremely fine, with just under half a second separating the top 20 in FP2.
Ingram told TouringCars.Net this means any issues a driver has came have serious implications come qualifying.
“It needs to be perfect, and that’s the trouble,” he said. “To get the perfect lap, you need a perfect car with you as well.
“And when you’re slightly out of that window – that operating window – it’s really hard to get it back. But we’ve got the best lads around, so we’ll be working hard to get it back.”
Although Ingram fighting back through the pack has been a regular feature in 2018, he says he would much prefer to have a clean qualifying session to save himself from having to recover tomorrow.
“Another Tingram recovery drive! I hope not, I do hope not. But we can only do our best – we know we’re not going to be on pole – because we’ve got the weight.
“So really it’s just a case of managing expectations and trying to do the best job we can.”