Since 2015, the FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) has held the closing lap on the Nürburgring Nordschleife before the start of the iconic 24-hour Nürburgring race. This year’s race pair is scheduled to take place early this morning, but Round has been canceled only 15 minutes before the start of the first race. After repeatedly experiencing tire problems during practice and qualifying, the WTCR was deemed too dangerous to race on the treacherous 15.7-mile track.
Goodyear exclusively supplies tires for the entire WTCR course, and its main batch of tires are susceptible to damage on the Nordschleife race track surface naturally. Lynk & Co driver and four-time world touring car champion Yvan Muller had one of the toughest times with a faulty tyre. He was punctured in both practice and qualifying.
After qualifying, Muller said, “We have to survive tomorrow, but right now I have to tell you I’m not sure if I’m going to race. I do not want to die “. It’s hard to disagree with Muller, considering how dangerous the Nordschleife is with a fully functional vehicle. Goodyear supplied two additional tires for most units in the hope that it would alleviate the problem, but it simply wasn’t enough.
In the announcement about the cancellation of the roundation, WTCR stated, “Goodyear Racing can confirm that it cannot guarantee that the tires supplied for this event will perform as intended. Furthermore, Goodyear Racing confirms that, at this stage, it is unable to give an exact reason for the tire problems that have occurred during previous track performance, until full data analysis has been completed. appearance takes place. This process is ongoing.”
Goodyear has stated: “Safety is our first consideration and we understand how important it is to give drivers the confidence they need to perform on a lap with the specific requirements of the racetrack. Nurburgring Nordschleife. We are committed to performing a full comprehensive technical analysis of the product and tire usage based on race conditions in the context of future FIA WTCR racing events of the season. ”
The WTCR is expected to reschedule its Nürburgring later this year, supporting another event race on the Nordschleife.
