Thed Björk has called for a second, in-season Balance of Performance [BoP] test to be carried out, after the Hyundai i30 N cars were hit with balancing measures at Zandvoort that prevented any top ten finishes in races one and two.
Björk believes that the increase in ride height to 100 mm, together with the limit to 97.5% of engine power, have hit the Korean cars too much.
The reigning WTCC champion managed just 19th in both of the weekend’s qualifying sessions, and the Swede thinks that the cars – which before the weekend had taken all six pole positions in 2018 – have been hit too hard with not enough evidence.
“It is not possible [to make progress]. I saw it in the race yesterday – I was in the whole race and it was not possible,” said Björk to TouringCars.Net.
“They did the BoP at the beginning of the season with the dyno test and so on, and my idea would be to take three or four of the cars now and do it again.
“They should take them and do the test again. Otherwise it takes time to know where we are.
“They want a level playing field with the cars and I would like that as well because then you can make the difference as a driver.
“It’s hard for me to judge because I am just learning everything, and the guys have been working with this for so long.
“But my idea would be to make another BoP test because they control us anyway with the heights and the weights, so why not do that.”
Björk will start just behind team-mate Yvan Muller as the second-best i30 N on the grid in the final race of the weekend, but he does not expect to make any progress.
“I will try to avoid accidents and try some setups on the car to see if we can get some more grip from the tyres. That’s the plan.
“We have to drive and see what we can do. We are not covering anything up, we have to drive. This is what we have.”