Photo: TCR Media

Dusan Borkovic fears he will be an easy prey for VAG cars in Spa races

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Dusan Borkovic finished the first free practice at Spa-Francorchamps in third. Despite being happier with the behaviour of the car after it was allowed to run at a 90-millimetre ride height en lieu of 100, the Target Competition driver fears the top speed differential with Audis, Volkswagens and Cupras will make it easy for rivals to overtake him on the long straights of the iconic track.

“I don’t want to look like I always complain,” said Borkovic to TouringCarTimes. “The car feels better (after the BoP changes), although still not perfect. I think there is balance between Hyundai and Honda, but the VAG cars are just too quick on the straights. I can understand Audi’s advantage, because they have better aerodynamics, but the Cupras have similar aero compared to us, and the Golf is even worse.”

Borkovic concluded other cars have a significant power advantage, and that the BoP should change to make things more equal.

“They are still faster on the straight. The top nine top speeds were from VAG cars, so to be honest they should intervene on them with Balance of Performance just like they did with Hyundais for the cornering speed.”

Despite being happy with the car, especially compared to Zandvoort, the Serbian thinks the lack of top speed will make it easy for VAG cars to overtake him, and therefore he will not be able to win races.

“I am satisfied with the car, but I was on the limit with those tyres, so I don’t know if I can do much more. In free practice it’s still all quite foggy, but for now it doesn’t look so bad. The problem will be in the race, because when they do the compensation weight they compare the lap times, but sometimes it’s not a good indicator. If I have three VAG cars behind me they will overtake me very easily on the straight after Eau Rouge. I don’t think it will be possible for any non-VAG car to win.”

Despite the top speed disadvantage, the Serbian feels that it would not be a good idea for him to do slipstreaming with his team-mates, as he would lose focus on his driving.

“I don’t really like to do that. You obviously gain time on the straights, but then you lose focus in the corners. I know some drivers are able to maintain the focus on their own driving, but for me it’s too difficult, so I don’t think we will do that. We may still discuss it within the team, but I’d rather not.”