Tuesday 7th April 2015

Motorsport on... Tuesday 07/04/2015

BTCC's lurid return, Renault row rolls on and are the fans now holding a grudge?

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BTCC is back with a pleasing bang at Brands, with three great races, three deserving winners and plenty of promise the season is going to be a good'n. The extra winning ballast seems to have a big effect, the parity between front- and rear-wheel drive cars appears well managed and the depth of talent racing up the front in the field made it, at times, a bit of a masterclass on Sunday.

A great season opener for the BTCC

Who can fail to be pleased by the pure, closely-fought but basically clean racing between Gordon Shedden and Andy Priaulx in race two? OK, they nudged, but that's BTCC racing - and crucially, Priaulx didn't shove Shedden, and didn't follow up as the Honda driver went sideways. It was great to see and culminated in a brilliant charge to the flag that already has sealed its place in the end-of-season review. Honourable mention to plucky BTCC stalwart Rob Collard's triumph in the opening race, and triple champion Matt Neal's controlled victory in race three.

BTCC is the country's biggest motorsport series, its flagship event; if this is a sign of what we're in for this season, it's going to be fun.

Lurid liveries
What is it with lurid liveries in BTCC? Looking at the grid blasting around yesterday, it struck me that the curse of the wrap, and the supposed creativity it offers, has led to some real honkers. Contrast them to some of the prettier ones, such as the simply elegant Team Dynamics Hondas, to see what I mean.

Not exactly iconic, is it?

Motor racing is an emotive sport: is it possible to love a car with an ugly livery? In 20 years' time, will we still talk about today's cars with the same fondness we speak of, say, Tim Harvey's Listerine 3 Series or David Leslie's Ecurie Ecosse Cavalier? Maybe, given how easy it is to wrap a car these days, some of the more 'graphic' teams should take a look at the beautiful F1 Williams - or, indeed, the Dynamics Civic - and try to make a poster car for themselves...

Renault row latest
The latest spat between Renault F1 and the two teams it supplies, Red Bull and Toro Rosso, has taken another interesting twist this week when Toro Rosso technical director James Key praised the 'massive step' taken by the French brand between Australia and Malaysia.

His team, whose two drivers outscored both Red Bull drivers, found particular gains in driveability, and the gap between it and the Mercedes-AMG and Ferraris much reduced. "It's still not perfect, but it's a lot better than in the first race" he told Autosport.

"It's still not perfect, but it's a lot better"

Which is very encouraging indeed, particularly given how Red Bull appears to have no toys left in its pram to throw out. The last thing F1 needs is historic partner Renault dropping out, as the sport has long been richer for its presence. Things looked depressingly bleak for it after Oz, but the rapid improvements in Malaysia suggest there may be a plan in action there.

For an indication of just how much it may be able to improve, look at where Ferrari was last year, and where it is this year: it can be done. Which, you'd have to think, must also give McLaren-Honda huge reason to be confident, too. This season is far from over...

Fanning the flamers
Interesting move in Formula E this weekend: Long Beach winner Nelson Piquet Jr chose not to use the Fanboost, er, boost race fans awarded him during the race. Other Fanboost-winning drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Sam Bird used theirs, but Piquet Jr essentially snubbed the fans and kept the button unpressed.

Formula E can be won without Fanboost...

It wasn't two fingers to the fans, of course: his car was overheating, made worse by him mishearing a call to slow down and manage the overheating, and in fact speeding up. He was in the lead anyway, with a clear margin, so he sensibly chose to keep it in reserve.

Which is an interesting new development, and variable, in Formula E. See, if Piquet Jr chose to snub the fans this time, will they now snub him in the future and leave him without the power boost he may need? Just as race rivals can carry grudges, will the fans now too?

Fanboost has been much discussed here on PH, and to say not everyone's in agreement with it is putting it mildly. But with this weekend's new twist to the concept, what do you think about it now? What, tactically, does this add extra to the series? Could it now indeed be something other series should look into to add engagement? Over to you...

[Images: LAT Photo]

[thiscocks]

Sadly only the first race can be called a 'pure' race. The rest with the added increased ballast make the series a joke.

[Monty Python]

thiscocks said:

Sadly only the first race can be called a 'pure' race. The rest with the added increased ballast make the series a joke.

Nobody is forcing you to watch it - they've had success ballast for years now so apart from the change to the way the grid for race 2 is determined it hasn't changed. Would you prefer it to be like F1 where one team can dominate the entire season?

[designndrive62]

Monty Python said:

thiscocks said:

Sadly only the first race can be called a 'pure' race. The rest with the added increased ballast make the series a joke.

Nobody is forcing you to watch it - they've had success ballast for years now so apart from the change to the way the grid for race 2 is determined it hasn't changed. Would you prefer it to be like F1 where one team can dominate the entire season?

The ballast has been significantly increased for this year, and distributed to top ten now, compared to previous years. It does seem to have played a big part in Sundays racing, it will be interesting to see how it affects different cars as the VW's seemed to carry it well, but the BMW's dropped like a stone with it.

I think it would be interesting to see how a whole BTCC year would go without it. When you look at brands qualy, and the first race, in which no-one runs any ballast, everyone was very close. Maybe the series doesn't need it any more. I don't believe any one car has a significant advantage over the others such as the vauxhalls did in early 2000's, so I think without the success ballast the series would still prove just as close.

Edited by designndrive62 on Tuesday 7th April 12:24

Edited by designndrive62 on Tuesday 7th April 12:25

[Craiglamuffin]

Not sure about the livery comments. Pre-vinyl-wraps, for every stunner there were 2 or 3 plain white cars in lots of series. Wraps open up more options for more people... Even if some Ming.

[thiscocks]

Monty Python said:

thiscocks said:

Sadly only the first race can be called a 'pure' race. The rest with the added increased ballast make the series a joke.

Nobody is forcing you to watch it - they've had success ballast for years now so apart from the change to the way the grid for race 2 is determined it hasn't changed. Would you prefer it to be like F1 where one team can dominate the entire season?

To be honest, yes. At least it is 'real' racing performance. They could still have the mixed up grids for more overtaking just without the weights. I have never liked it. Cant imagine how frustrating it must be for a driver!

Agree regarding the liveries. The BMR VW looks sort of ok if a bit too plain, but on the other end of the scale the Goff MG looks like it was designed by a pissed up blind guy on a bad day. While the ebay BMWs looked pretty good the new ones are an instantly forgettable collection of poorly thought out colour schemes and logos.

[Lundqvist]

Totally agree on the wraps & liveries thing.

I know many of the teams now in BTCC are privateers anyway, but contrast the boring looking grid now with the immediately recognisable liveries of the 90's/early 00's super tourers and I can't help but think they all need to make more of an effort.
It's the same in the WRC - the current liveries are pathetically bland in comparison to the 80's/90's/early 00's cars.

[Mr Red Barron]

I think liveries as a whole have not been iconic for many a year now. Just look at the current F1 grid, drab. Look at the Endurance grid this year, boring. WRC, same. I think in these harsh financial times, teams are willing to let whatever sponsors they have, have too much control over what they want. These days I don't think companies want bright, stand out colours......it's all too 'corporate'. Shame

[mikeg15]

Most of the cars are now way over decorated (as bikes have been for years) The manufacturers are losing out in marketing terms 'cos there is so much crap on the bodywork it's difficult to identify what the car underneath actually is.

[Alex Langheck]

No mention of the ERC Circuit of Ireland Rally? Seems to have passed most people by. Eurosport need to pull their finger out, the promotion of the ERC isn't particularly good.

[DanielSan]

The biggest factor in the BTCC races this weekend wasn't the weight, it was the soft tyres. Anyone in them bar the Honda's hit a brick wall in degradation after 9-11 laps and just went backwards.

[MG CHRIS]

DanielSan said:

The biggest factor in the BTCC races this weekend wasn't the weight, it was the soft tyres. Anyone in them bar the Honda's hit a brick wall in degradation after 9-11 laps and just went backwards.

Agreed since its start very few people have made it work. It offers not enough benefit of grip at the beginning to the lose of grip after 10 laps.

If it was 1s lap quicker for half the race laps the normal tyre then degraded slowly after that it wouldn't be that bad but it doesn't. Honda was helped with the safety car early on as well with the soft tyre.