Cyan Racing boss Christian Dahl was slammed the current TCR Balance of Performance [BoP], which he feels is unfairly inhibiting the performance of the Lynk & Co 03 TCR cars.
Ahead of the second meeting of the FIA World Touring Car Cup at Estoril this weekend, the Swedish team has called for changes to the BoP levels.
The Lynk & Co 03 currently has to run at 97.5 % engine power – a level it has run at ever since it was introduced for the 2019 season.
The only other car which has had to run with such low power is the Hyundai i30 N, which is at 97.5 % for the common ECU and at 95% for the manufacturer ECU.
But with Hyundai replacing its WTCR car with the Elantra N for 2021, the Korean rival to Lynk & Co has been able to run at 100% engine power and 60 kg less BoP weight than its Chinese-Swedish competitors.
“We are extremely disappointed over the current BoP levels, [such] that we called for a change of before the season start,” explained Christian Dahl, Founder and Owner of Cyan Racing.
“We are still baffled over the levels for Hyundai and Honda, especially in light of the data from the first race weekend.”
At the season opener, the two races were won by Honda’s Tiago Monteiro and Hyundai’s Jean-Karl Vernay, with the Lynk & Cos of Yvan Muller and Santiago Urrutia completing the race one podium and none of the blue cars making it onto the podium in race two – where Urrutia was the best-placed Cyan driver in fifth.
“When we entered the Lynk & Co 03 TCR for its first season in 2019, the car received the most weight and 97,5% power,” continued Dahl.
“The new Hyundai Elantra TCR meanwhile has received 100% power and no ballast weight at all for 2021.
“Added to this is that Honda has received a 30 kg weight break after homologating a wide array of new parts to their car. We need this to be re-evaluated and changed.”
Urrutia also believes that the BoP needs to be changed after he qualified 2.5 seconds from pole position around the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
“I think we made the most of the first race weekend, but we were behind due to the BoP,” said Urrutia.
“We really need to fight hard this weekend and my approach will be to try and score as many points as possible.
“I haven’t raced at this track since 2014 and I look forward to get going again.”
Yvan Muller, the team’s most experienced driver, is joint fourth in the drivers’ standings with Urrutia and echoed Urrutia’s comments.
“We managed to get a podium at the Nürburgring thanks to the reversed grid,” said Muller. “But for Estoril it will be even tougher for us.
“As I said after the last race, there is nothing wrong with the performance of our Lynk & Co 03 TCR, but rather the Balance of Performance.”
Reigning champion Yann Ehrlacher was just eighth and tenth in the opening two races of the season in Germany and is expecting more tough races in Portugal.
“I’ve just raced once at Estoril before, so we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” said Ehrlacher. “And we’ve got the least power, the most weight and the highest car.
“The races are going to be really challenging with the power deficit and tyre degradation. We need to push hard and try to fight for more points to make up lost ground in the standings.”