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11
STANDINGS
FEATURE
In Portugal and Italy, the situation is
different as the respective national series
regulations allow for a car to be shared by
two drivers, but are not specifically
designed for that option, which was
foreseen for easing budgetary constraints.
“Reducing costs is the only plus,” reckons
Luis Veloso, team principal of Veloso
Motorsport that runs SEAT León cars with
both single and two-driver line-ups in the
Portuguese series, “I think having single
drivers is better for the show and
visibility, and is probably what any driver
would prefer, but we have to take into
consideration the reality of things. For a
team, it is also better, in terms of race
strategy and set-up of the car”.
That’s also the opinion of Imerio
Brigliadori, who heads BF Motorsport
which runs three SEAT León cars entrusted
to pairs in the Italian series. “The sum of
the two parts of the pairing is, of course,
important,” he reflects, “but even if the
level of the two drivers is very close, you
will never have the same performance, nor
an ideal set-up of the car either. Add this
to the fact that, with two drivers, each of
them has less track time in free practice
and qualifying, and at the end you
inevitably have a handicap in
performance.”
So it’s not certain that two is better than
one, as we have seen, but partnerships are
often a choice dictated by reason…
TCR Italy: BF Motorsport’s Vincenzo Montalbano
and Imerio Brigliadori at Misano