The BTCC's big debate

The recent domination of Colin Turkington's rear-wheel-drive WSR-run BMW in the British Touring Car Championship has rekindled the heated debate about the relative strengths of RWD and FWD.

Some key figures - including Jason Plato - have called for the RWD machines to be pegged back, but others have pointed to different track characteristics to argue there should be no knee-jerk reactions.

Turkington's BMW 125i M Sport qualified on pole and took doubles at both Oulton Park and Croft. Series organisers introduced a longer first gear for the RWD BMWs and Audis ahead of the Croft round, designed to negate the layout's inherent traction advantage at the start, but do not currently plan any further changes.

When asked at Croft if there would be more measures to peg the cars back, technical director Peter Riches said: "Not this year. If you take the laptimes there's nothing wrong with any of them. It's just the starts, which has been a problem since RWD raced FWD.

"Where RWD and FWD have an advantage varies from circuit to circuit. If you look at Thruxton it's FWD, Croft has historically had a RWD advantage. They do handle differently.

"The Oulton International circuit [layout] didn't help - I think Jason would have overtaken Colin on the Island circuit because Colin's braking distances were getting longer."

Most teams agree with - or accept - the change to the longer first gear, but the issue of whether the RWD cars need further restrictions has split the paddock.

THE CALL FOR CHANGE

Plato argues that the restrictions of NGTC, which uses many spec parts, limit the scope of teams being able to get around the disadvantages of FWD.

Plato reckons RWDs are better in every area © LAT

"Because of the restraints of NGTC we've reached the end of our development," said the MG driver at Croft. "In every area they're better - weight distribution, traction, tyre wear."

Although Plato has been the most vocal in terms of calling for action - even claiming "we are witnessing the death of FWD with these regulations" - he is not alone.

"The results say it all," says triple champion Matt Neal. "If you go back to the early '90s, RWD had to run extra weight."

Motorbase team manager Oly Collins, who runs FWD Ford Focuses, believes it's an issue that should have been addressed before the season. "It's taken too long for them to react because we raised this at the end of last year," he says.

"I'm a strong believer in RWD having more weight than FWD. Historically, series that have both types have done that. Our advantages seem less this year - the [new control] tyre has perhaps helped the BMW, and the engine is tucked behind the front axle.

"The championship is as close as it's ever been. The regulations aren't far off, but at the moment it looks like RWD has a slight edge."

He did concede that different tracks play to the strengths of different cars: traditionally RWD struggles at high-speed circuits but gains at slow- and medium-speed venues.

"The lap performance is finely balanced," adds Collins. "There are going to be tracks and conditions that suit one, and tracks and conditions that suit the other."

THE DEFENCE

Not all FWD teams have joined the call. Speedworks boss Christian Dick, who runs Tom Ingram's Toyota Avensis, says: "The start was an issue and needed to be addressed, but on laptimes it didn't look terrible. Croft is always a RWD track.

"If it ends up being an annihilation for the rest of the year we'll need to do something, but we've got to see what pattern emerges before doing something drastic."

Rob Austin, who was second in race two at Oulton in his RWD Audi A4, also pointed to the years of FWD domination in the BTCC.

"We don't ever complain when the FWD cars have a clear advantage, which has been more often than not this year," he said before Croft. "They have far more advantages in both qualifying and race trim - it's just ours is more visible than theirs.

"Also it's my opinion that the racing in the BTCC has been fantastic this year, we have a full and world-class grid and the championship is one of the best in the world. So why change it?"

Austin says RWDs accept when NGTCs are quicker © LAT

WSR has also been quick to point to some of the limitations of the RWD layout within the NGTC regulations.

"I'm not convinced our weight distribution is better," says senior engineer Drew MacDonald. "Our fuel tank sits a lot higher - 110mm - because of the propshaft, which means a higher centre of gravity.

"We also can't move the driver to the centre like the FWD teams can because of the propshaft, and the middle is better for weight distribution."

WSR boss Dick Bennetts pointed to the advantage FWD machines have in qualifying.

"They can lock the differential in qualifying, which gives you better braking and better traction," he said prior to Croft.

"You can't do that with RWD because it understeers. And because the tyres are harder [for 2014] they can lock the diff more in the races now too."

OUTSIDERS' VIEWS

ITV commentator Tim Harvey, who won BTCC races in both RWD and FWD machines during the Super Touring era, believes no changes are required.

"I think the equivalency is about right," he says. "The last two races have favoured RWD and always have done. When you look elsewhere, the BMWs were OK, which is what you'd expect from a good team.

"When Honda were the best FWD they were good everywhere. I think there will be tracks where FWD has a slight advantage. It evens out.

"The fact is WSR has done a great job this year.

"During Super Touring RWD also had ABS and that was the primary reason [for extra weight]. It was to negate that, which was probably fair enough."

Experienced team manager Malcolm Swetnam, who has run both RWD and FWD cars in the BTCC, believes the arguments are more about political battles than inherent advantages and disadvantages.

"It's because grizzling now achieves something, since performance balancing came in," he says. "They constantly bleat about the car that's winning rather than focus on their own job."

Ultimately, what happens will not depend on any theoretical edge either way. Although series boss Alan Gow is not keen to change things too much in what has - overall - been a closely fought season, the BTCC is not about one car disappearing into the distance.

If Oulton and Croft are repeated, expect changes. If not, Turkington and WSR will be free to fight for the title without further hindrances, at least in 2014.

The Snetterton round next month will be key. MG and Honda won the races there last year and the circuit is less likely to suit the RWD machines. If Turkington wins there, the calls for change will get louder.

PACE COMPARISON

Turkington has won five of the last six races © LAT

The table below shows the deficit from the fastest RWD qualifier to the fastest FWD qualifier since the WSR BMW 125i M Sport entered the BTCC in 2013.

Excluding Oulton Park, which was run on a different layout this season, it shows that the average RWD improvement over the first half of this season is 0.404s.

Although there are obvious problems with applying that average to the second half of the season, such as the BMW's development in the second half of 2013, turbo boost changes, and the possibility of different track conditions, if that continues a RWD machine could be on pole at the Knockhill, Rockingham and Silverstone rounds.

In the latter case, however, that does rely on Turkington being able to find the same gain despite his 2013 qualifying effort being one of the best laps of last season. The second half of 2014 is thus finely poised.

Circuit                   2013                2014  
Brands Hatch Indy         +0.457s            +0.070s
Donington Park            +0.521s            +0.286s
Thruxton                  +1.485s            +0.712s
Oulton Park*              +0.671s            -0.649s
Croft                     -0.148s            -0.370s

----------------------------------------------------

                          Projected gap             
Snetterton 300            +0.790s            +0.386s
Knockhill                 -0.092s            -0.496s
Rockingham                +0.238s            -0.166s
Silverstone Nat           +0.388s            -0.016s
Brands Hatch GP           +0.495s            +0.091s

*Run on Island circuit in 2013 and International layout in 2014.

AUTOSPORT SAYS

Those fans that have suggested the introduction of the longer first gear came about because series boss Alan Gow is beholden to Jason Plato are rather wide of the mark - as anyone who knows both can attest - but they do raise one fair point.

Amid the debate, it's easy to forget that WSR and Colin Turkington are doing a superb job.

Even Plato has not stopped praising Turkington for the performance he's putting in, and the 2009 champion is one of the most respected drivers in the paddock.

He quietly put together an unlikely title challenge last season, when the 125i M Sport was under-developed, and it should be no surprise that he is a frontrunner now that Dick Bennetts' meticulous crew has got on top of the car. Few teams have longer debriefs.

How much of the combination's current performance is due to inherent advantages with RWD and how much is due to all concerned doing a fine job is impossible to gauge, but I'd wager a vast percentage is down to the latter. It's not hard to imagine a FWD WSR-run machine being a contender in Turkington's hands.

When Honda/Dynamics does a great job with the Civic, it gets the credit. When Triple Eight dominates with the MG6, the team is praised. It should be the same for WSR.

And it's had to work for it too, as Turkington proved when he said: "We had wholesale changes over the winter and we've moved on since the start of the season. That's why we are in a much better position - last year we had peaks and troughs."

Of course, if the BMWs - or indeed the Audis - do become dominant everywhere, changes will be made. The BTCC is primarily entertainment, not a technological tour de force, but it seems a tad early to hit the RWD cars now when we've had three consecutive Honda titles and four FWD-mounted champions on the bounce.

It's not unusual in modern motorsport for leading performances to result in calls for balancing measures/boost level adjustment/extra weight (etc, etc).

Given that many series are set up to operate like that - and it's easier to lobby regulators to make rivals slower than it is to find extra pace - that's not surprising. But it is a shame.