The FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) heads to Portugal this weekend for the second round of its 2021 campaign.
Having originally been scheduled to take place at the picturesque Vila Real street circuit, COVID-19 measures have meant that the event will instead be held at former Grand Prix venue, Estoril.
The circuit, which has been conducive of entertaining TCR races in the past, is a lot tighter and more technical than most of the modern tracks that are featured on the WTCR calendar, and as such, should serve as a fitting replacement for the side-lined street course.
However, beyond the change of venue, there are plenty of talking points to consider as we head into the weekend after a dramatic opening few weeks to the season.
Tiago Monteiro’s timely resurgence
The Nürburgring Nordschleife hosted the first round of season, and amidst plenty of close racing, Tiago Monteiro had his best start to a campaign since recovering from injury in 2018.
At the ‘Green Hell’, the Portuguese veteran stunned fans by taking victory in the first race of the year, serving as a reminder as to why he has been a title contender for Honda in the past.
In addition to strong underlying pace, Monteiro managed to avoid the chaos as it unfolded around him, before executing a perfectly timed overtake through the very last few corners of the circuit.
Now, he will undoubtedly be hoping to continue that positive trajectory into his home round this weekend. If history is anything to go by, the familiar surroundings should serve him well, as since that remarkable recovery, his only other WTCR race win has come at home back in 2019.
Heading into the event, Monteiro lies second in the overall drivers’ championship standings, just six points behind the series leader Jean-Karl Vernay. That said, Monteiro is tied on points with Honda stablemate Nestor Girolami, so a good set of results at Estoril will be vital if Monteiro is to stake a claim at being the team’s lead driver this season.
What next for Zengo Motorsport?
In pre-season, the evolution of Zengo Motorsport was heralded with much fanfare. Alongside promising young talent in the form of Mikel Azcona and Bence Boldizs, the Hungarian outfit added 2012 World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff and CUPRA factory driver Jordi Gene to their roster.
As such, Zoltan Zengo’s crew were marked as potential dark horses for this year’s outright championship honours, however the team’s start to the season in Germany was far from what they would have hoped for.
Of their four drivers, only Boldizs scored a handful of championship points following a weekend of lacklustre pace, mechanical woes and mid-race contact for the quartet.
The results will perhaps have come as a surprise to the team, as in the hands of Azcona, the latest generation of CUPRA Leon was a race winning machine in 2020.
Now though, as the championship heads to Estoril – a far more traditional circuit compared to the Nordschleife – the Hungarian outfit will be hopeful of kick-starting their season somewhat.
As the new Leon is considered to be more of a jack of all trades, rather than a straight-line dragster or apex specialist, the complex nature of the Estoril circuit may well suit it better.
Plus, the track may also allow the quality of Zengo’s drivers to shine brighter than was the case in Germany. Huff, for example, has been looking forward to visiting this circuit since the refreshed calendar was announced. A renowned street course specialist, the Brit feels as though the demanding nature of Estoril may play into his high stakes skillset.
After a nightmare start to the season, the only way is up for Zengo Motorsport, and they will surely hope to elevate themselves up the order as soon as possible. This is a team which is certainly worth keeping an eye on throughout the weekend.
The battle for supremacy
The real story, however, comes from what has happened within the WTCR paddock since the curtain came down on that opening race weekend.
Political outbursts are never far away in World Touring Car competition, and this week, it was Cyan Racing who have been doing all the talking.
The Geely-affiliated team has come out in force in the past few days to express their ‘extreme disappointment’ at the state of the TCR Balance of Performance measures, which sees their Lynk & Co 03 TCR models restricted to just 97.5% engine power output.
The team are particularly irked as their two nearest competitors – Hyundai and Honda – are allowed to run at full power, with fewer handicaps in the form of ballast and ride height too.
However, BoP is intended to do exactly what the name suggests – balance the performance of all the cars involved within TCR competition. So, given that Cyan Racing themselves claim the Lynk & Co 03 TCR to be “the most successful car in the 2019 & 2020 WTCR”, it seemed almost inevitable that further handicaps would be placed upon them.
After the opening round, both Yvan Muller and Santiago Urrutia find themselves in the top five of the overall drivers’ championship standings, so it is hardly as if the Lynk & Co has been rendered uncompetitive.
Indeed, Hyundai suffered far worse Balance of Performance restrictions with last year’s I30N model, which instead of battling for podiums, saw their drivers struggling to reach the top ten.
Nevertheless, the governing figures at Cyan Racing and Geely have not taken the measures placed upon them lightly.
Victor Yang, Vice President of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has since pulled his company’s backing from the promotion of the Chinese WTCR event at Ningbo Speedpark, citing “no confidence left” in the TCR governing bodies as the rationale for the decision.
This raises plenty of questions about the future of WTCR in China, as well as the team’s long-term championship involvement, which are yet to be answered.
For now though, all eyes will be on how the team fares at Estoril, and whether Hyundai and Honda will also be dealt less favourable technical conditions in the weeks and months to come.
Fans will be hoping that everyone does their talking on the track this weekend however, with the WTCR action set to restart again tomorrow.
Free Practice One is scheduled to get underway on Saturday morning at 09:00 local time, with Free Practice Two and Qualifying coming later on in the day.