WestCoast Racing Team Principal Greger Petersson admits that he is not expecting his team to be able to beat the SEAT León Racers in the TCR International Series this weekend in Shanghai.
American racer Kevin Gleason took pole position for the Swedish team in qualifying in Malaysia, with Italian Gianni Morbidelli then going on to score the outfit’s first podium in race two last time out.
However despite promising early signs, Petersson admits that he is not expecting to be able to topple the dominance of the SEATs just yet, with ten of the Spanish cars represented on the grid.
“If you don’t win, you’re never satisfied,” said Petersson. “There’s no doubt we made fantastic progress, both in pre-season testing at Barcelona and at the opening round in Malaysia, but I think it will be difficult to repeat the sort of success we had at Sepang, simply because the Shanghai International Circuit is a very different track and the temperatures will be much lower too.
“We’re still in the early stages of development and we’re working extremely hard with the new Honda Civic TCR, going up against some cars that were developed more than a year ago. We don’t really expect to be able to beat the SEATs this time out, but that is definitely our long-term aim. We have to target that.
“There is a good group of guys behind the team and sooner or later, their efforts will yield results. It’s hard to pinpoint where the strengths and weaknesses lie at the moment, but the contrasting challenges of Shanghai will give us more of an insight.”