Tom Coronel expects close fights after Barcelona pre-season testing

Tom Coronel finished last in the pre-season test event at Barcelona. Despite this, the Boutsen-Ginion Racing driver is not worried at all, as his Honda Civic TCR was laden with ballast during the test.

“We were trying to find the setup, and we had a lot of weight in the car to see how it would react,” said the Dutchman to TouringCarTimes. “That doesn’t mean I didn’t try to push though, I had two new tyres and I used them. I also saw some others had four new tyres, so that keeps me upbeat. I think the tyres were deciding a lot in terms of the speed of the car.”

The Honda driver expects close racing ahead of the Marrakech curtain raiser next week.

“I think we should be fine, it’s just very, very close, so if you’re a bit off you’re in trouble. I feel good with the team and with the Honda Civic TCR. Nobody knows what the others are doing, but I know I had a lot of weight in the car, so I’m reasonably happy.”

With Hyundai expected to be the car to beat, Coronel refused to talk about the i30 N TCRs, especially as he believes the balance of performance will be enough to keep the field close.

“I don’t speak about other cars because I only know mine. What I know is they were three seconds off the pace in BoP testing, which is not possible. It’s a question mark, let’s just wait and see when we get to Marrakech. I think everybody should be quite close, the FIA are controlling it, so let’s see how clever they are. Everybody knows the Hyundais are the fastest cars, but I trust it will be close touring car racing this year, which makes me happy.”

Although the former TCR International Series drivers have no experience of the tracks, the Dutchman thinks they will catch up very quickly.

“All these guys are clever and fast, so I wouldn’t worry about track knowledge, they will catch up. It will be close, exciting racing.”