UNKORRUPTED withdraws from Barcelona double-header.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.

GC Kompetition has on Wednesday announced that the UNKORRUPTED team has been withdrawn from the Barcelona double-header this weekend. 

After redeveloping the team's Renault Clio R.S. RX in the off-season. With updates including the installation of the ORECA Megane spec engine, new BOS dampers, and significant work on the weight distribution. The team had high expectations heading into the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship. 

In a season preview video, the team highlighted weight reduction and the ability of the Clio R.S.RX to brake a lot later due to it's lighter weight, however, the first race of the season was a true reality check for the French squad with only Rokas Baciuska progressing to the semi-finals, but that's where the semi-final appearances would end. 

Kevin Abbring entered the fray in Finland but struggled to get to grips with the Clio R.S. RX sliding sideways on a few occasions and only bringing home a 13th-place finish. 

It was back to the drawing board heading into the Latvian double-header which saw the team run different set-ups and differential changes. The team also announced that they would use the Riga double-header as a test event to gather as much data as possible for a pre-Barcelona test, but following the results, GCK made the decision to withdraw the team from the Spanish double-header this weekend. 

"At GCK, we've made the decision to withdraw the UNKORRUPTED team from the upcoming FIA World Rallycross Championship event in Barcelona," the team's statement said. 

"Following additional test sessions after Riga RX, we have found significant issues that cannot be addressed in time to be race-ready."

"While we're not known to shy away from adversity or give up, this decision is the safest and best thing to do at the moment. We appreciate your support through this and our drivers and team will continue to work hard to bring you exciting race action in the future." 

Rokas Baciuska took to social media to explain the reasoning behind UNKORRUPTED's withdrawal: "So sorry, but #unkorrupted team decided not to participate in Barcelona race. Since the car is just not competitive, I don't see the point in rating. My goal is not to pull back."

Written By: Junaid Samodien

UNKORRUPTED uses Latvian double-header to gather information.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition.

UNKORRUPTED has used the Neste World RX of Riga (Latvia) as a test session after a poor start to the 2020 FIA World Rallycross Championship. 

The French squad had high expectations heading into the 2020 World RX season after making significant changes to the Renault Clio R.S. RX that made it's debut in 2019. However, there expectations were not matched with on track performance. 

The fifth and sixth rounds of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in Latvia was used as a test event, as the UNKORRUPTED crew trialled differential changes and tweaks to the set up in order to gather data for post-event analysis. 

To date, Rokas Baciuksa has claimed the team's best result, an 11th-place finish at round one of the championship in Holjes, Sweden. Fast forward to Riga-Latvia, rounds five and six saw the pair leading the tail end of the field in 15th and 16th respectively. 

Team founder and driver Guerlain Chicherit admitted that it was difficult heading into the weekend knowing that he would not be competitive.

"As an athlete, for sure it’s tough to turn up when you’re not fighting for the top but motorsport is not easy, and it was important to get this weekend’s runs to gather enough information and test the changes made ahead of our pre-Barcelona testing," Chicherit said. "I’m really grateful to the mechanics and the rest of the team, they just keep pushing on despite frustrations as we try to learn as much as possible in what is an incredibly short, hectic season this year."

"I’m really happy to see the work I’ve put in over the off-season on my own driving style come through as we can see it’s got much cleaner. Now I hope we make some progress ahead of Barcelona to see it come together."

Teammate Rokas Baciuska has also been left frustrated despite earning the teams' best result of the season to date in Holjes, Sweden. 

"A weekend like this is hard because I want to race to win but we knew it was going to be a data-finding exercise and need to focus on the changes we can make and the improvements we can find," the Lithuanian driver said. 

Ahead of round seven and eight in Barcelona, Spain, the UNKORRUPTED team will analyse all the data obtained in Latvia to integrate it into a test programme planned for the next few weeks.

Written By - Junaid Samodien

Character-building weekend for UNKORRUPTED in Sweden.

PHOTO CREDIT: GC Kompetition/Eric Fabre.

The 2020 FIA World Rallycross season kicked off in Sweden over the weekend with what has become known as the ‘magic weekend’ at the world-famous rallycross track in Holjes. 

It was magic, as a new team joined the grid in 2020, but unfortunately, that was where the magic ended for the newly established UNKORRUPTED team. While GC Kompetition was an independent team in 2019, this season they oversee three teams, with UNKORRUPTED being one of them. In addition to that team owner Guerlain Chicherit switched his Megane R.S. RX for the new evolution Renault Clio R.S. RX and will team-up with Rokas Baciuska in 2020. 

Hopes were high as the Renault Clio R.S. RX underwent further developments during the off-season with updated suspension, an updated engine, and a 30kg weight reduction. The updates allowed the Clio to brake a lot later than it's competitors, but the team were unable to unlock its true pace. 

The opening round of the 2020 World RX season got underway in mixed conditions, which saw Chicherit finish the first and second qualifying sessions in fourth-place, but due to evolving conditions he was ranked 16th overall in both sessions. 

The Frenchmen's third qualifier was only good enough for P14, which meant he would go no further finishing round one in sixteenth overall. 

Having worked through the night to change various aspects to the car’s set up, Guerlain finished Q1 in eleventh overall, but contact in Q2 saw him finish the session in twelfth overall.

In an attempt to hang onto a semi-final spot, Chicherit pushed but it was just not enough to qualify for the semi-finals, which saw him finish round 2 in thirteenth overall. 

"This was not the start to the Championship we had wished for sure - we’ve done a lot of testing over the winter and showed a very competitive pace, however, arriving in Sweden showed the track environment to be extremely challenging for our setup and we struggled with grip," Chicherit said. "The team thinks they may have found the problem and will now work hard to find a way to adjust the car ahead of Finland but it will be tight with only 5 days to go."

"It’s frustrating and upsetting for sure but I’m not someone to give up and I will fight to come back stronger. We’ve got some of the best drivers and cars in the paddock this year and I want to see the GCK Clio R.S. RX battle with them."

Chicherit's teammate Rokas Baciuska raced his way into the semi-final in round one having put down increasingly competitive pace and performances. After the three qualifying heats, Rokas was 11th overall despite turbo failure in Q3 and bagged a spot in the semi-finals. 

Having turned the car around in time for the semi-final, the Lithuanian only managed to complete three laps before another issue with the turbo forced him to retire in sixth-place. 

The second round (on Sunday) got off to a rough start for Rokas after contact with Robin Larsson caused engine issues which saw him drop to sixth overall with two qualifying sessions remaining.  

In Q2, Baciuska managed fought back to 11th overall, but his weekend came to an end after finishing his Q3 race in twelfth-place, which meant he would go no further. 

"We’ve definitely had a tough race weekend here at the first couple of rounds of the Championship in Sweden - from the turbo breaking which resulted in some engine issues later to struggles with the car setup from the beginning of the weekend, we’ve been fighting hard to find a good way for the GCK Clio R.S. RX to take on the rest of the pack," Baciuska said. "We did a lot of testing on very different tracks and our setup didn’t match what we needed here, so there’s work to be done now to find competitive pace."

 Written By - Junaid Samodien