Honda tied with Citroën on outright wins in the new-for-2016 Manufacturers Against the Clock, the FIA World Touring Car Championship’s answer to a Tour de France-style team time trial. But as Norbert Michelisz reveals, the success didn’t come easily.
Along with fellow factory drivers Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro, Michelisz was an ever-present in Team Honda’s WTCC MAC3 line-up and became one of the first high-profile names to slip up when he nudged a wall during the fourth WTCC MAC3 event in Morocco.
“It’s not been easy to get to grips with,” said the Hungarian. “It’s very easy to make a mistake, and because you only have two laps, you have to make every corner count; especially on a street circuit. It’s not like in a race where you can maybe back off a little and use a couple of laps to work out where you want to try to pass another driver.”
As well as taking five outright victories, Honda shared the honours with Citroën in Slovakia when both makes sensationally set identical times. Monteiro revealed the importance of pre-season testing in Honda’s success.
“We spent a whole day in one of the pre-season tests doing MAC3 simulations to get used to running so closely together on-track, because we know how critical these points can be,” said the Portuguese racer.
Following the success of WTCC MAC3 season one, a first for international motorsport no less, the competition will continue in 2017 with more points on offer and the debut of Team Volvo Polestar in store. Although eight points will continue to be awarded to the second-placed team, the winning line-up gets 12 points, which is up two from 2016.