Thed Björk was ‘surprised’ with the way in which the change to the TCR Balance of Performance was handled in Saturday’s FIA World Touring Car Cup event at Zandvoort, which the race one winner says happened off the back of a ‘very fast analysis’.
After the Lynk & Co cars dominated qualifying in the morning, the BoP was changed such that it reverted back to 97.5% power and 30 kg of BoP weight for the Cyan Racing cars.
There was much heated discussion about the situation in the Zandvoort paddock in the morning, until TCR rights holder WSC released a statement admitting to a ‘misjudged interpretation’.
Björk went on to win from pole position, ahead of team-mate Yvan Muller, whilst the debate about the BoP situation rumbled on.
“I was focussing on the driving, on qualifying and then the race, to just keep doing what I can do,” said Björk to TouringCars.Net. “There were so many things going on that I don’t know about as a driver.
“We were so far off in Slovakia and we were so surprised what happened here. Now we have to let people look at it, take some time, [work out] what happened and why it was like this. We feel that this is very strange to do this. I am surprised.
“That was a very fast analysis they did after just one qualifying session I would say, but let’s see what they do.”
Björk is still expecting the Lynk & Co 03 to perform well on Sunday despite the reduction in power, as he does not believe the change in the BoP was worth the seven tenths back to the next-best manufacturer in the field.
“We will see tomorrow in qualifying [how much the BoP is worth]. Usually that small percentage shouldn’t make too big of a time difference, so I think we will have a good car tomorrow as well.
“You want a good championship with equal cars and then the good drivers and teams win the championship. It’s difficult to get it right, but let’s see what they can do.”
Yvan Muller did not want to comment on the BoP situation as he believes the changes are detrimental to the series.
“I have no comment,” said Muller. “I think many things happened. We heard many things and I think what happened there is already bad enough for the championship so there is no point to talk about it anymore.”