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BRC Hyundai team 'surprised and disappointed' at 2019 WTCR BoP

The BRC team representing Hyundai in the 2019 World Touring Car Cup says it is "surprised and disappointed" by the Balance of Performance issued for the start of the season

The WSC Group behind the TCR concept published its initial BoP, which will be applicable to all TCR-certified series, on Thursday.

The Hyundai i30 N that BRC will campaign in WTCR this year is the only model in the series with a 90mm ride height, and its engine will also have to be run at 97.5%.

Those figures are the same as the ones the i30 N raced under at the end of 2018, but the car's BoP weight has been upped 10kg, and rival cars in the series have also been given performance breaks.

BRC released a statement on Thursday evening in response to the BoP, which team principal Gabriele Rizzo said "takes away our ability to compete at the same level as our competitors".

"We are surprised and disappointed about the Balance of Performance for 2019," said Rizzo.

"If we consider our performance at the end of last year, even taking in account the CW [compensation weight] effect, the Hyundai i30 N TCR was not the fastest model on the field.

"We were expecting a BoP close to the one of last year for the same cars used in 2018. Instead the new BoP unfairly penalises our car while improving the performance of others."

Rizzo added that BRC felt the application of the BoP would stop it from challenging for the title for a second season.

"We fear the democratisation of TCR races has been enforced to the extreme, preventing the same team with the same car competing for victory for two consecutive years.

"We have seen the top speed analysis of this morning's testing and we are astonished that we are 10km/h slower than the fastest model, we are the second heaviest car, we are the highest car in terms of minimum ride height and the lowest car in terms of engine BoP - and now we have been given a BoP that does not match our performance on track."

Reigning drivers' champion Gabriele Tarquini was 14th on the opening day of testing at Barcelona, two places ahead of his BRC team-mate Norbert Michelisz.

"I'm not very happy with last night's news regarding the Balance of Performance," said Tarquini.

"In the last part of the 2018 season the regulations may have balanced our very good performance in the first part of the season, but in reality we weren't very competitive with the speed or the performance.

"It's not good news for us because it now looks like we don't have a good chance to fight for pace in the first races."

Michelisz explained that he felt the step was not fair.

"Honestly when I saw the BoP, I was disappointed," he said.

"Compared to the second half of last year, we are in a disadvantaged position."

The BoP will be in place from next weekend's opening round of the WTCR season at Marrakech, at which Tarquini won two of the three races last year.

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