In January, they talked about Frederico Turrata engineering Moffat's car, which I get the impression has been impacted by COVID. I seem to recall that Hexathron's support has been restricted due to Italian movement restrictions, so Moffat's support has been remote.
https://www.btcc.net/2020/07/31/lase...dy-for-action/
'The car’s been redesigned, a collaboration with the Laser Tools Racing team, BMR Engineering and input from our engineers at Hexathron Racing Systems also.'
All along, they've talked about BMR looking after Sutton's car. When Moffat confirmed Turrata as his engineer, they said that Tony Carrozza was joining the team to work with Sutton, and the addition of Millard seems to have strengthened the position.
It's worth understanding the background of the two engineering arms currently preparing the Q50, to understand why the situation is loaded in Sutton's favour.
Turrata was the man who put the idea of resurrecting the Q50 to the Moffats in the first place, when they were initially only bought for track day use. They had no IP rights to the A-Class, with those held by Ciceley, so their development options were limited.
The Moffats initially approached Warren Scott with a view to getting Moffat into a Subaru a few years ago. When Turrata had convinced them to take on the Q50, agreement was reached between the two teams that Sutton could help with testing at Snetterton. Further discussions, when it became clear that the Subaru's life was coming to an end, led to an agreement that BMR's chief engineer Carrozza would lead the development of the new car in the joint effort, with consultancy from Turrata.
Carrozza had joined BMR following the departure of Faux and Millard at the end of 2017. In March of this year, Sutton is quoted as "All the people working on my car are exactly the same as the last couple of years." We were in a situation where it was very much the existing Laser Tools crew led by Turrata running Moffat's car, and the BMR crew led by Carrozza looking after Sutton.
Moffat Sr confirmed this "We've used some of their engineering staff for the build and development of the car, we're quite happy to support BMR Engineering, and their members are working on Ash's car".
Prior to Jordan's withdrawal, he was due to be working with John Waterman, however with one less car there became a surplus of engineers at WSR. That resulted in Dan Millard departing to join Sutton shortly before the start of the season.
So when you add it all up, you have a car that was designed by a set of engineers who had experience of one of the drivers. That driver was involved with testing and developing the car, and has won the title in RWD before. He has now been joined by the engineer who supported him in his title season.
Whereas on the other side of the garage, you have a car that was new to the driver last season, where the driver has minimal RWD experience. That driver's main engineering support has been restricted to remote consultation.
It's not hard to see why Sutton's performance advantage seems to exist in comparison to Moffat.