HONDA NEEDS BOP RELIEF

Honda needs BoP relief – Images: InSyde Media

Honda’s disappointing display at the opening round of TCR Australia at Symmons Plains has been blamed squarely on the Balance of Performance measures placed on the Civic Type R TCR by the global promoter WSC.

By HEATH McALPINE

Although not a fancied circuit for the Hondas, teams were not expected to struggle as much at the Tasmanian circuit, however speed differences of more than 10km/h compared to the leading Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCRs from the weekend emphasised the competitors struggles.

Four Hondas took to the start at Symmons Plains spearheaded by Wall Racing’s factory-assisted Civics for Tony D’Alberto and John Martin, plus two new entries for privateers Zac Soutar and Michael Clemente.

All were grouped consistently towards the rear of the field in each session at Symmons Plains, while the best time D’Alberto achieved in qualifying placed him 11th. A long way from achieving the first TCR Australia pole position at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2019.

D’Alberto admitted the Honda was not expected to be a race winner at Symmons Plains, but was surprised by how much the Civic Type R TCR struggled throughout the event.

“It’s not generally the strength of the Honda in a straight line, we get our advantages in different places and coming to a track like this where it’s basically drag strips, we always knew it’d be an uphill battle, but not this much,” he told Auto Action.

The Honda supported driver described the racing as having one arm tied behind his back.

“Basically, to see the Hondas at the back of the field shows to me the BoP needs adjusting and it can’t come soon enough,” emphasised D’Alberto.

“It is disappointing, you can’t really skirt around the issue. It’s disappointing to come here, with all expectations to compete and we literally had one hand behind our back.

“It’s a bit of an unfair fight.

“I think we extracted the most we could out of it during qualifying in 11th, which is probably not where you want to be, but as soon as we got into racing, I was like a sitting duck.

“I can’t even block. You try and block, and they just go the other way so it was pretty disappointing, but over the weekend we just kept working on the package that we had and maximised it.

“We’ve come away with a straight car with a lot of information and that’s all we could do.”

TCR promoter WSC’s annual Balance of Performance testing is expected to take place next month, right before the second round of TCR Australia at Phillip Island.

D’Alberto hopes the combination of BoP alterations and the flowing nature of Phillip Island will bring the Hondas back towards the front.

“Clearly this weekend it was an issue,” said D’Alberto. “Basically, the top of the field was covered by Alfas and the bottom was covered by Hondas.

“Generally, we don’t see that, we see a real mix and you might see some brands have a better weekend than others depending on the car’s strengths, but this weekend we were getting rounded up in a straight line very easily and basically guys pulling back in front of us by the braking zone.

“To do that, you’re carrying a lot more straight-line speed and from what I’ve seen it’s more than 10km/h.

“How do you fight with that?

“I think Phillip Island will be better for us. There are some longer corners and we don’t have the stop-start stuff like at Symmons Plains so I think that will naturally help us, but we do need help with the BoP.

“There’s no doubt about it.

“Whether that means our car getting help or pulling back some others. I don’t know the formula, but they need to even it up so every manufacturer in the field, if the team and driver do a good job, have a chance of winning the race.

“And this weekend, there was no chance of that.”

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