The cause of Subaru's BTCC disaster

One of the biggest shocks of the opening British Touring Car Championship meeting at Brands Hatch at the start of April was the performance of the factory-backed Subaru Levorg machines, which were arguably the most potent cars on the grid at the end of the 2016 campaign.

The cars were well off the pace, and there was a lock-down on any information coming from the team and its drivers throughout the weekend. What is clear is that there is something seriously wrong.

In the final round of the contest last year on Brands Hatch's Grand Prix circuit, the estate-shaped cars locked out two of the three top spots on the grid and Colin Turkington raced to two of the three victories on offer that weekend.

Step forward six months, returning to the Kent venue, and the Team BMR-run cars were out of the game. On the Indy circuit, the highest the car could line up on the grid for the opening race was 18th in Jason Plato's hands - and even that result was slightly flattered by a dry-wet-dry-wet qualifying session that played to the strengths of the more experienced racers.

This year's drivers - Plato, Ash Sutton, James Cole and Josh Price - were all struggling with the handling of the reworked Levorg cars, which have had an alteration to the centre of gravity for 2017 to bring them in line with other engine configurations on the grid, which all feature an in-line set-up.

The Subaru was designed and built because it had an advantageous boxer-style engine, which carries the mass of its weight low down. Those who had studied the rulebook - and it wasn't only Team BMR, others had done it too - realised that a Subaru could be the magic bullet when it came to getting the most from the current BTCC package.

It was BMR, and the profile of Plato particularly, that tempted the Japanese firm to throw its weight behind the campaign and get involved.

The waters were choppy from the start as the late-on-parade Levorg - four of which were put together in under three months - was bolted together without some of the homologated parts it needed to get the most from it.

During the opening two rounds the car was breathless, and the development of the machines was also hurt by a fuel rail problem, which caused Cole's car to burst into flames at Donington Park and ultimately led to all four of them being withdrawn from the Thruxton meeting.

With that solved, and a rule dispensation to allow engineers to fit a new bespoke inlet manifold, the car's fortunes turned around. It was finally able to use the level of boost it had been granted and Turkington in particular was able to gel with the car.

The Northern Irishman took more points than anyone else in the last seven meetings of the season. Plato was the second most successful in that period too, outscoring eventual champion Gordon Shedden in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type-R.

However, the rules have been amended for 2017 and that has, at the moment, given BMR a mountain to climb. That move was made because the car was a six-time race winner in 2016, but it looks a very long way from being like a winner now.

The team says the cars had tested with some elements of the revamped regulations - which comprise a sliding scale of the repositioned weight carried, allied to a sliding scale of ride-height adjustments - but when the final settings where applied at Brands, it was a disaster.

Watching the rear-wheel-drive cars from trackside, it appears that the problems run very deep. The car was an animal going into the corners compared to some of the other well-sorted chassis on the grid, and its drivers were on a voyage of discovery every time they even tried to look at an apex. It was clear that something was very wrong for the combination that had been such a success in the season before.

The mixed-up qualifying session meant that direct comparisons were unrealistic, so delving into the times in the warmer and dry second free practice is probably the best indication of the true picture.

The four Subarus were the slowest four cars in the speed traps in the second sector, which finishes at the start-finish line. They were around 5mph adrift of the pace setters. In the first sector, which finishes along the Cooper Straight, they weren't much better. Cole was top in 27th - still some 3mph behind the top guys.

The BTCC has always been a place where teams will constantly complain about boost levels and the equalisation of turbo boost formula that is in place. But for all four of the Subarus to be so far from the pace at Brands Hatch - a venue that generally keeps cars tightly bunched - means something is badly wrong.

A poor speed-trap showing might not just be about the performance of the engine: it can also be about how a car comes out of the preceding corner too. Any deficit there can be magnified all the way along the next straight to the point where the car's velocity is recorded.

Plato's race weekend was ruined by a startline crash in race two that ruled him out of race three and injured his back, but the rewards would only have been slim pickings anyway. He had already banked the best result the car would get over the course of the weekend with a 12th in race one, while rising star Sutton found the handling of the car so tough that he took many trips to the gravel trap.

Nobdy from the team wanted to put their head above the parapet and explain the reasons why. Plato was particularly circumspect and all he would offer was that the team had a lot of work to do to get on top of the car and its new characteristics if they wanted to return to the successful ways of 2016.

"It is pretty clear that we have some work to do to get the most from the car," said Plato, clearly biting his lip.

Plato has been in hot water with championship officials before for some forthright views on the level of boost granted to certain cars, including his own. At Brands Hatch, everyone in the squad was trying desperately to keep a lid on any criticism that might emanate from any area of the team about any aspect of the programme.

BMR has worked with the car since Brands and will go to Donington this weekend in search of more answers. If they aren't forthcoming, don't expect the team to be too vocal on the reasons why just yet.