Going to the heart of motor racing

2010. július 15. 03:53 | még nem szólt hozzá senki.  szerző: Viktor Adorján

Every industry has its own silicon valley and it is not a question that the United Kingdom is currently the centre of motor racing. Round 6 of the 2010 FIA WTCC season will be hosted by the legendary Brands Hatch circuit where Norbert Michelisz aims to be among the frontrunners again.

As a competitor in the FIA WTCC, Zengő-Dension Team is fortunate to be able to visit numerous high level circuits around the world but there is no reason to hide that there are a few events that get highlighted in the schedule and pop up often when the team personnel talk about the past or upcoming races.

Beside Monza, the Brands Hatch circuit in the UK is certainly a weekend that everybody is looking forward. The legendary location is a living history, it has been hosting races since 1964 and has seen several memorable battles in various single seater and touring car races including FIA Formula 1, the annual Formula Ford Festival and recently the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

Thanks to its long history, the circuit has a special cultural heritage in the world of motor racing and welcomes thousands of enthusiastic crowd each year to support the drivers and teams from various places of the world including their local heroes.

Not designed for the TDI, but no problem

Certain circuits in the calendar are matching well for the characteristics of the SEAT Leon TDI car used by Zengő-Dension Team but as Arnau Niubó, Technical Director of the team explained, Brands Hatch is not among the best tracks in the schedule.

"From the race engineer point of view Brands Hatch is a circuit with short straights and some different kinds of corners; low speed, medium speed and corners with a lot of camber. For these reasons it’s not a good circuit for our TDI car. We raced there the last 4 years and from 8 races only one victory was achieved with SEAT car," Niubó summed up.

The statistics are speaking clearly against the TDI technology but the outlook for this year's race is not that bad. Following the examination of the laptimes from the previous rounds of the championship, the works BMWs driven by Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus are also given the maximum weight ballasts which means that they'll be heavier than they used to be.

Not just the BMWs, the Chevrolet Cruze cars will be carrying more weight as well if we compare them to their state in last year's race. In 2009 the Cruzes were added only 10 kilos of ballast which is 30 kilos less than they have this year. Therefore Norbert Michelisz expects the Chevrolets to be slower than they were last year.

"This 30 kilos means about 3 tenths, maybe 4 each lap so I expect the order to stay as it has been over the previous races," Michelisz said. - " BMW will be very strong on the qualifying and Chevy and the SEAT should be on the same level. Chevy might be better by a hair's breadth but I'm waiting to see 2 or 3 SEATs in the first four rows. As I really love this circuit, I might be one of them."

Watch out on Race 2

Norbert Michelisz has emerged as a strong candidate for a potential success on the second races of each weekend as the Hungarian driver has been on or close to the pace of the frontrunners and took three 7th places so far which meant three 2nd places on the reversed grid for the second installments of the races in Marrakech, Zolder and Portimao.

Zengő-Dension Team's lead driver thinks that BMW will be the team to beat this weekend but he expects to have a chance on Race 2 to claim a success which should be coming following the improvement we have seen over the recent races.

"BMW is a good reference point compared to last year because they have minor developments but their weights are the same as last year. On the qualifying BMW was clearly better than the SEAT and in the second part of the race they were significantly faster," Michelisz analyzed.

"I think there is a chance on Race 2 because it is not so easy to overtake on this circuit so if a driver has experience and defends the lines then he might keep his place with a reasonably slower car as well."

The paddock will be tighter in Brands Hatch

Driving the reasonably slower car

Race 2 in Portugal showed what is it like to try to keep a place, especially the lead with a car that is clearly slower than the attackers from behind. Norbert Michelisz started Race 2 from 2nd on the grid and took the lead immediately but his engine started to overheat very quickly that decreased the performance of his car.

The Hungarian driver was able to defend himself initially but the state of his car turned from bad to worse and he was forced to retire from the lead on Lap 4. Michelisz says this blow made him stronger and gives him hope for the upcoming races.

"I'm not feeling broken at all moreover I have a little bit of a boost because I was able to drive on the front with a bad engine as well. I've just checked the sector times and I was around 6-8 km/h slower than the other SEATs. It gives me more power for the upcoming outings to know that I could be there with that car," Michelisz added.

Zengő-Dension Team's driver admits that he had additional pressure because of problematic nature of the standing starts but he says that he has found the way to manage the starts in order to stay in the hunt for a potential success on Race 2.

Qualification is key and gets harder

Optimal qualification sessions are essential for getting the results that are needed to take advantage of the reversed grid for Race 2 and despite Michelisz confirming that their performance is getting better and better, it is clear that the fight for the Q2 gets harder and harder.

There haven't been any sessions in which Norbert Michelisz was not able to advance into the Q2 but the Hungarian driver was concerned over his chances in Portugal and his engineer also pointed on the increasing competition for the Q2 thanks to the arrival of 2009 BTCC champion Colin Turkington and Polestar Racing featuring a Volvo C30.

"Turkington showed a really good performance in Portimao and for sure he will be a fast driver in Brands Hatch as he showed in 2007 by being 3rd on Qualifying and Race 1 and 4th in Race 2. Obviously with more good drivers will be more difficult to be in the top 10 of Q1 but we like racing with the best drivers. Volvo also showed a good pace in Brands Hatch," Arnau Niubó said.

Regardless of the relatively new opponents, Norbert Michelisz is upbeat on his chances for the Qualifying as he expects himself to be competitive but made sure not to underestimate the challenge that he faces this weekend against the very experienced opponents who are eager to perform well on the home ground.

"I want to be in the top 10 for sure but on qualifying maybe there is a real chance to get into the top 4. Robert Huff will be fast and Alain Menu has a BTCC career that dates back for 20 years. For him Brands Hatch will be absolutely a home soil so the three Chevys will be quite strong just like the BMW. At SEAT everybody will give the usual performance," Michelisz guessed.

Less tracktime but more experience

Brands Hatch will be the first circuit of the season on which Norbert Michelisz has driven three times since 2008 as he completed four races in the SEAT Leon EuroCup and two in the FIA WTCC last year. The Hungarian driver said that he has gained invaluable track experience that will help him this weekend. This is a fortunate scenario as the Friday test session will not take place in the schedule which means that only 60 minutes will be available for the drivers to get ready for the qualification.

Despite the more experience he has compared to the other races, he is still lacking mileage compared to the British drivers who will be even more competitive this weekend. Chevrolet's Robert Huff, BMW's Andy Priaulx and eBay Motors' Colin Turkington will be joined by BTCC driver Tom Boardman with a petrol-powered SEAT Leon.

Boardman's return means that now three drivers will be on the grid who used to race in the SEAT Leon EuroCup as 2009 champion Norbert Michelisz and SR-Sport's Fredy Barth are regulars in the field and currently battling for the lead of the Rookie Challenge. Just imagine this a year ago when Michelisz broke into the Q2 for the first time with his privateer and petrol-powered SEAT Leon.

Photos by SEAT Sport & Zengő Motorsport

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