Bureau's Make BMW And Honda Lighter
In their effort to make performances on the track as equal as possible, the FIA Touring Car Bureau have issued two decisions that will have effect from the event in Pau and until further notice.
Both decisions concern a reduction of the cars' minimum weight:
• all BMW cars: minus 15 kg
• all Honda cars: minus 20 kg
These reductions will be applied to the cars' total weight including the success ballast.
Cazenave Replaces Tielemans In Pau
Laurent Cazenave will replace Olivier Tielemans at the wheel of the Wiechers-Sport BMW 320si car for the WTCC meeting in Pau.
A 33-year old from Pau, Cazenave makes his WTCC maiden appearance on his home circuit. Since 1995 he has emerged as one of the fastest amateur drivers in French car racing. Further to a couple of single-seater seasons (he classified third in the 1997 Formula Ford B championship) Cazenave switched to covered wheels: touring cars first and GT later. He achieved brilliant results in the French Super Production Championship (third in 2000) before moving to the FFSA GT Championship in 2001. In this latter series he has shared Porsche, Chrysler and Corvette cars with his fellow citizen (and former ETCC driver) Eric Cayrolle achieving race wins and podiums.
"Tielemans cannot race in Pau because he is recovering from a minor health problem. Luckily we had the opportunity to make an agreement with Cazenave in such a short time. We are happy with this, because we believe that the team will benefit a lot from his experience of the track," Wiechers-Sport team manager Dominik Greiner said.