It's really sad. I already disliked the absence of VW at the grid and the shrinking gridsize year by year. And now Hyundai & 4 top drivers missing on the grid is really disappointing..
Hyundai throwing a tantrum is just ridiculous. They have only won 3/4 WTCR Championships up to this point, and after one race with unfavorable BoP they threw their toys out of the pram... Didn't see them too concerned about BoP when Cyan got loaded back in Malaysia. Or when the VAG cars were getting killed on straights...
I agree they got the Hyundai i30 BOP wrong for Zolder - if all cars run comparable BOP measures it is probably the most advanced and strongest TCR car followed by the Honda and Lynk & Co compared with the more primitive cars like the Peugeot benefitting from 100+% power increases and the VW group cars somewhere inbetween. BOP is there to stop the strongest car dominating, not nerf it in favour of it's next best rivals. However, I think Hyundai Motorsport's behaviour is pathetic. They've threatened to pull out regularly over the past three years every time BOP has threatened their dominance. This time it's over a new ECU some late entries haven't had time to develop into their cars, the weight penalty given to those entries is probably a little lenient but if the alternative is a 12 car grid I have little sympathy for Hyundai throwing their toys out of the pram. I find myself willing the Honda's on in WTCR as they seem to be the only manufacturer who behave within the spirit of the competition. Last year Hyundai used Gabriele Tarquini as a wingman, Nicky Catsburg as a hitman and Augusto Farfus as a test mule to try and secure Norbi Michelisz the championship. Lynk & Co asked Thed Bjork to move aside for Yvan Muller when they were level on points and both well in the championship battle and kept asking Ehrlacher and Priaulx to slow lap times down so they didn't get as heavily penalised on BOP every time Muller won. Volkswagen and Audi have shown they no longer care for touring car racing so I have little interest in them being successful either.
They may just as well pave over all the area between the barriers & let them drive where they want. Non adherence to track limits was just ridiculous & no one appeared to get penalised for it.
Even there many of them were right off the track on the inside. I understand that Spa are planning to do away with most of the paved run-off areas & put them back to grass.
The track limits on the inside of Raidillon were generally a bit more lenient, the last years, as far as i remember. Yes, it's planned to remove some paved stuff, off-track.
Thought you mightve been exaggerating a bit but i just watched superpole and goodness me. Dont think ill be able to watch much of the race because my brain is just on repeat "no no no what are you doing, stop it" to the point where its just not at all enjoyable to watch and i can hardly concentrate on the racing anymore
La source, no name, blanchimont and bus stop just to add a few for illustration purposes. Theyre so far off track its even getting hard to just find where the track is on some angles
Ridiculous! What will we see in the race? Overtaking beside the track? Crashes into slow cars in the run-off areas? If they don´t have the staff to control this they better call it off!