SEPTEMBER, 20th 2021

Six-time Porsche Carrera Cup champion Miguel Paludo has faced an extra challenge in his battle to win his seventh championship in the category. In addition to opponents who want to dethrone the gaucho, the driver of the Brandt #7 car has the challenge of carrying an extra 50 kilos (110lbs) in his sports car throughout the entire season.

Leader of the championship since the first stage and with the highest Balance of Performance (BoP) of the entire grid of the Carrera Cup, Paludo has had the challenge of remaining competitive nonetheless.

“Running with 50 kilos more than most competitors it is a huge challenge. The cars are strictly equal, so we have to compensate for this ballast within the adjustments we are allowed to compensate for the weight.” Paludo said about the difficulties of keeping the same pace as the other competitors.

Unlike in 2020, where the ballast was just 30 kilos (66lbs) , in the 2021 season, 20 more kilos were added to last year’s, so working together with Pablo, their longtime engineer, made more of a challenge.

Speaking of numbers, the 50 kilos represent 0.3s to .05s slower than other drivers who don’t run with ballast, considering the Interlagos racetrack.

“I’ll give you the example of the “junção” corner, we do the corner very close, in the low sectors we can even maintain a pace similar to the lighter cars, but at the junction, even in a draft, the opponent opens up a lot of advantage for being able to develop much easier speed. To overcome it, it has to be very well calculated and at a very precise time.”

Even so, Miguel is still leading the Porsche Cup and fighting for another title for his resume in the most produced competition cars on the planet and the secret is consistency in the results.

“The important thing is to score well and know how to save equipment to be in the fight for both races. The grid inversion still punishes us a lot, because if we finish the first race in the first positions, we need to climb and push the car even more. So it’s important to know that winning won’t always be the best option, the important thing is to always keep scoring and fighting to be up there in the table.”

With two stages and four races still to happen, the fight for the Carrera Cup title promises to get fire up from now until the weekend of the São Paulo F1 GP, when we will meet the champion of sprint races in 2021.

By: porschegt3cup.com.br

Miguel Paludo: leader even with the heaviest car on the grid