WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli says he is remaining “realistic” in his expectations in race two of TCR Europe at the Red Bull Ring because of the Volkswagen’s unfavourable Balance of Performance.
The Italian racer qualified ninth for the opening contest yesterday but would go on to finish 11th after contact at the Remus hairpin in the opening laps meant he dropped positions.
Morbidelli told TouringCars.Net he is hoping for a clean race two as he wants a strong points haul, but believes it will be “complicated” due to the weight the Volkswagen carries at the Spielberg circuit this weekend.
“[It will be good] if somebody again doesn’t make any shunts because all the time I’m in the middle of some guys that damage my race,” said Morbidelli.
“It’s a shame, yesterday I started very well, I was in a good position. I don’t want to say that I was able to compete for the top but for sure some good points which is the most important thing for us at the moment.
“We have to be realistic, we are not competitive enough at the moment. But also the BoP is against us, we have a lot of kilograms of weight because of a strange calculation.
“Of course it’s costing us a lot in a track where there are a lot of uphill and downhill sections, where you have to use the brakes a lot.
“It’s more complicated when you have a lot of weight in your car.”
This weekend Morbidelli’s WestCoast Volkswagen carries 50kg of compensation weight – 20kg more than they had at Spa.
With the undulating nature of the Red Bull Ring track, Morbidelli feels this is hurting his performance at the end of the straights, despite being gaining back time on the brakes and in the corners.
“Yesterday I was very, very slow on the straights. To be honest I wasn’t even able to follow the CUPRA in front of me even with the tow,” he said.
“I was losing a lot. I have to admit I was quite competitive on the brakes and the corners but in the straights I was losing too much then it was a sort of elastic effect with [Alex] Morgan.
“I was gaining a little bit on the brakes and in the corners but then I lost on the straight. I was not able to overtake, but the main problem yesterday was in the second corner where I lost three or four positions because of stupid contact.
“Again it’s a shame but this is touring cars.”
With Morbidelli’s best result so far this season coming at the season-opener at the Hungaroring with eighth position in race one, he is hoping to secure silverware in race two at the Red Bull Ring to reward the WestCoast squad with “some satisfaction” for their hard work.
“We start from second position now so it’s a good opportunity but I will try to defend my position and at least do something good for the team,” he said.
“The effort that they put in for this and all the guys are working hard.
Sometimes you need some satisfaction and a good performance to recharge the battery and to give you the right energy and the right feeling to carry on and to push.”
The second race of the TCR Europe weekend at the Red Bull Ring is set to get underway at 11:30 CEST [10:30 BST].