Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR to get new engine after double points finish in Macau

Andrea Belicchi scored points in both races in Macau during his debut at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR. The Italian finished eighth in Race 1 and ninth in the second heat, scoring six points in the Mulsanne Racing Alfa Romeo.

“My goal was to have fun and extract all the potential out of the car, which I did”, said Belicchi to TouringCarTimes. “We’ve seen some remarkable performances especially on the engine side, as we were matching the top cars in the field.”

A gearbox issue in qualifying hampered Belicchi’s chances of doing more than what he did: “Unfortunately we had a gearbox problem in qualifying, which hadn’t happened before, and that was a big limit. It’s a shame because I believe I would have done well had I started higher up the grid. Of course then Macau is Macau, but I still had fun and the car is in one piece, I was quite quick, so that’s positive.”

As for the Giulietta TCR, the car will get a new engine: “The car will radically change as it will get a new engine from the Giulia, then it takes a few little, precise steps to optimise the entire package. I believe they have done a great job already, unfortunately our weekend was ruined by problems the team had never before experienced, so that’s the only regret. In Macau you need to start ahead to stand a chance of scoring a good result.”

Belicchi believes the car would have been competitive to challenge the other cars, but perhaps not just enough for the podium: “I think we could have fought with other brands, but then the podium would have been difficult as I was up against drivers who did the entire season, and they were obviously more aggressive than me, as I came here to only do this race.”

As for the future, the Italian hopes to continue his collaboration with Mulsanne Racing and Romeo Ferraris, who build the Giulietta TCRs: “We haven’t talked about it yet, but I would like to collaborate with Mulsanne Racing and Romeo Ferraris, although I will be busy with my LMP2 commitments. We will see during the winter.”