How WTCR's last real independent has stayed in play

It's hard to keep track of the number of cliches that have been used in reference to the 2019 World Touring Car Cup grid, but perhaps the most frequently trotted out is that the competition is on "another level" this year compared to last.

There's little arguing that's not the case. The Cyan Racing team that clinched the inaugural teams' title in 2018 has, through its motorsport partner Geely Group Motorsport, brought Chinese brand Lynk & Co to the grid; Volkswagen declared "WTCR, not WRX" when announcing double World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson would join the 26-car field; and World Touring Car Championship race winners Nicky Catsburg, Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx - a three-time champion - are all back after being impressed by what they saw in 2018.

That's quite some might to compete against before you consider the boost in backing pretty much all teams affiliated with manufacturers - the direct presence of which is restricted by TCR regulations - have received over the off-season. It's not an insignificant achievement, then, for the series' last real independent to be mixing it with the big hitters.

Alfa Romeo squad Team Mulsanne is the outfit in question. A team of 25 people, it is the only one of last year's small squads - the other three being Zengo Motorsport, DG Sport Competition and Boutsen Ginion Racing - to have stayed on for a second WTCR season. Newcomer PWR Racing is the closest team to falling into that bracket, but its operation is supported by the Comtoyou Racing outfit that in turn has support from both Cupra and Audi.

Team Mulsanne is better placed than all other privateers running Alfa Romeos in TCR competition, given it is the name under which the car's builder Romeo Ferraris competes, but its association with Alfa Romeo goes no further than that.

Asked whether he agrees with that 'independent' tag, Romeo Ferraris team principal Mario Ferraris replies: "I think so. When we are competitive, the satisfaction is triple times."

On the driving front, Romeo Ferraris has what it hopes is a settled line-up for 2019 in place. Kevin Ceccon, the '11 Auto GP champion, has been retained after upstaging double British and '02 European Touring Car champion Fabrizio Giovanardi last year when he was drafted in to replace ex-Formula 1 driver Gianni Morbidelli midway through the season. WTCC race winner Ma Qing Hua is Ceccon's team-mate for '19, giving the squad a far more youthful line-up than it started last season with.

But the biggest development was an off-season decision to construct a new challenger for 2019. While the Alfa Romeo Giulietta came good towards the end of the season, it had been clear at the start it was in for a tough year - with neither Giovanardi or Morbidelli scoring a point in their five rounds as a pairing.

The car showed potential in the second half of the season but, although Ceccon won a race at Suzuka and racked up more than 100 points, it was clear more work would be required during the off-season to keep the team in the game.

As a homologation freeze meant there was little else that could be done to the existing Giulietta, Romeo Ferraris ultimately decided to take advantage of a loophole in the TCR regulations by building a 'new' model and having it homologated. This is the Giulietta Veloce - which, in simple terms, is a sportier version of the original.

Romeo Ferraris was ambitious in taking on the build of a new car. But the initial results suggest that it hasn't overreached

The team faced a race against time to prepare the new car, as the project wasn't signed off until late in the day.

"If I told you [when the team made the decision], you think it's not possible, because we started to modify the car in November," laughs Ferraris.

Even with a new car to play with, Romeo Ferraris' development scope was limited by restrictions in the TCR regulations, so two main areas were targeted - one inside the car and the other outside.

The big internal change was an overhaul of the car's weight distribution, with in-cockpit alterations compared to the previous model made to improve the car's centre of gravity.

"We changed the weight distribution a little bit, with the seat position and all the extinguishers and everything, and we tried to put everything in the middle, as low as possible," says Ferraris. "So the seat is a little bit lower than the older car, and also the ballast [box] is lower - every part of the car became lower, also the [dashboard]. The rollcage is the same like the other car."

This was an important area for the outfit to focus on, as weight had been its achilles heel in 2018. Romeo Ferraris was one of a number of teams that joined the inaugural WTCR grid after competing in the TCR International Series, but while the Giulietta was a winner there and the team understood the series' Michelin tyres, WTCR's softer Yokohama rubber, plus compensation weight, presented headaches at the start of '18.

"With these tyres... even with the compensation weight [all cars start each season with 60 kilograms], this is something new for us, we have never come so heavy," Romeo Ferraris operations manager Michela Cerruti said last May.

"I know that everyone has that weight, but on our car it has a very bad effect so the two things together were pretty bad for the car's behaviour and we noticed that the main problem unfortunately is on the brakes.

"It's not only a performance issue, but a safety issue because we can see from the data that the drivers are not safe on the brakes. They are always unsure what they are doing on the brakes because you're never sure if the pedal is there or not because we have a problem on the front suspension."

The team sought to modify the suspension, and was given permission to do so for last June's Vila Real round. The Alfa was more competitive there, and from the following round in Slovakia scored points at all but one of the remaining five 2018 events.

Romeo Ferraris has stuck with that part for 2019, but the project's short lead-up time meant desired changes to the rear suspension could not be pursued.

"We continued with that type of suspension in the front, and the rear suspension is completely the original one," says Ferraris. "This is not so powerful, because it's a strange suspension, it's aluminium. We need also to modify the rear suspension but we have no time - this is the problem. But I think the car is a lot better now."

Visually, there are notable changes to the car's aerodynamics too.

Most prominent are tweaks to the roundness of bodywork around the wheelarch. This continues at the base where the bodywork joins the splitter (left), and this part now rounds smoothly out to the edge of the wheelarch where previously a concave section tucked back in (right).

Instead of protruding all the way down to the sideskirt of the car, the back of the front wheelarch now stops short and rejoins the main part of the bodywork, while the skirt itself features a much smaller lip and again is more rounded where it joins the rear wheelarch. At the back of the car, the rear bumper covers are far smaller on the Veloce compared to the original Giulietta.

"The wing splitter is a little bit lower, therefore the drag is a lot better," says Ferraris. "And we cut everything here - all these [side] parts of the car. The [rear bumper area] is completely empty, before it's like this [reaching further down] and was [acting] like a parachute."

The rear wing is mounted from the rear windscreen (top), and is now made out of carbonfibre instead of aluminium, while all windscreens have been changed from the originals to polycarbonate versions - a big factor in the team shedding "25-28kg" off the car (although it remains at the minimum racing weight of 1265kg).

That work paid off come the season opener in Marrakech, where both Ceccon and Ma recorded ninth-place finishes. In qualifying for the first race, Ceccon was 11th but within half a second of the polesitting Munich Motorsport Honda of Esteban Guerrieri - and 1.2s closer to the pace than Giovanardi was in the same session a year earlier.

And while some of that is inevitably down to TCR's Balance of Performance - which Ferraris says is working well - levelling the field, the squad's work over the off-season has undoubtedly contributed to it establishing itself in the pack.

Romeo Ferraris was ambitious in taking on the build of a new car. But the initial results suggest not only that it hasn't overreached, but that the changes for 2019 have helped the team find "another level".