Lynk & Co Cyan Racing has called for ‘immediate and necessary action’ from FIA World Touring Car Cup stakeholders, following further tyre issues for its cars in practice in Vallelunga.
WTCR has already been rocked by a costly tyre debacle earlier this year, when the races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife were called off after qualifying due to tyre safety issues.
Although the issue went relatively quiet during the subsequent events in Spain and Portugal, the safety of the Goodyear tyres has once again been called into question by Cyan Racing after delaminations during practice at Vallelunga on Saturday – although the Swedish team is the only outfit to be raising concerns at this time.
The team has called for immediate action, releasing a statement on Saturday to explain that whilst it would continue to take part in qualifying, the presence of its five cars in Sunday’s races was not guaranteed without further action.
The full statement reads:
“Lynk & Co Cyan Racing experienced further tyre safety issues during the FIA World Touring Car Cup practice sessions ahead of qualifying at Vallelunga in Italy, just as during the round at the Nürburgring in May which was cancelled due to tyre safety concerns.
“The Lynk & Co cars of Cyan Racing experienced tyre delaminations during the first test and practice session at Vallelunga, including a front-left puncture for Yvan Muller at 225 km/h which resulted in a crash at Turn 2.
“The Lynk & Co 03 TCR of Cyan Racing is by far the heaviest car of the WTCR field, running 80 kilos more than the Hyundai Elantra N TCR of points leader Mikel Azcona.
“The current assessment of Cyan Racing is that the weight levels and supplied tyres make for an impossible equation for the team to drive a full race distance in a safe manner.
“Cyan Racing has decided to take part in qualifying on Saturday afternoon after running qualifying simulations during the final practice session, reaching the conclusion that shorter distances are possible to perform.
“However, Cyan Racing calls for the FIA WTCR stakeholders to take immediate and necessary actions, so that the team and its drivers can take part in the WTCR races at Vallelunga in a safe manner.
“The team will take a final decision on whether to take part in the two races on Sunday pending further action from the championship stakeholders.”
The FIA has noted that only Cyan Racing is currently experiencing tyre issues:
“[The] FIA is monitoring the situation closely and it has come to a conclusion that we are not facing a safety issue, as the problem is mainly focused on one team.”