As the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) returns to Puebla in Mexico for rounds three and four, after a year away from the track, the weekend’s biggest challenge for Yokohama ADVAN will be the championship’s success ballast rules.
Ten drivers will carry additional weight ballast following their strong performance in last month’s Brazilian rounds. Whilst this year’s maximum ballast reaches 60kg, championship leaders Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini will only be 44kg heavier than in Curitiba.
The Yokohama ADVAN’s are well equipped to cope however; knowing that any weight over 40kg can affect the tyres’ performance, the Japanese company has developed an especially resilient rubber combination to ensure their product copes easily with the weight variations in WTCC.
“The extra weight definitely plays a part”, said Muller who, along with SEAT team-mate Tarquini, received 30kg of ballast for being the opening weekend’s top scorers as well as 14kg due to the amount of championship points they collected.
“As does the fact that we didn’t race in Mexico last year but the ADVANs have proven themselves to be versatile time and time again so there is no real worry here. The heat will play a part too, predictions are at 28ºc for the weather which makes for a very hot track!”
Drivers tend to change their driving style according to how much extra weight they are carrying whilst concentrating on avoiding lock-ups or wheel spins in order to protect their tyres. With Puebla’s very low grip however, the negative effect that success ballast can have on the Japanese rubber is minimised as Yokohama Tyre Engineer Mr S. Watanabe explains:
“There is very little tyre wear emerging from the track’s surface in Mexico,” said Watanabe. “On the other hand, drivers still need to look out for the circuit’s high distance to turn ranking. Scoring 10, the Autódromo Miguel E. Abed is the most demanding track on this year’s WTCC calendar in that respect.
“With the most turns per overall lap distance, tyres are put under ‘turning’ pressure more often than on any other track, which can cause wear.”
Success ballast – Mexico
44kg Yvan Muller / Gabriele Tarquini33 kg Andy Priaulx26 kg Jörg Müller20 kg Rickard Rydell14 kg Félix Porteiro3 kg Augusto Farfus2 kg Tom Coronel1 kg Jordi Gené / Olivier Tielemans
Puebla track facts
Length of circuit / turns 3,030m / 18Distance:turn ranking (1-10)* 10 (most demanding 2008 WTCC track)Race distance 3,030m x 17 = 51,510mAverage speed of 2006 winner Farfus, 108.32kph (weather/track sun 23º/dry 41º)
*Where 10 is the 2008 WTCC circuit with the most turns/KM
Eurosport’s WTCC coverage will begin Saturday 5 April with qualifying aired live on Eurosport 2 from 11.00 (CET).
Live coverage on Sunday 6 April will start at 16.00 (CET) with the 15-minute warm-up session shown on Eurosport 2, followed by race one from 19.00 (CET) and race two from 22.00 (CET) both shown live on Eurosport International.
