2012 World Touring Car Championship

Bruno Sousa Ferreira · Dec 17, 2011

60 km is a step in the right direction but still a bit too short, would be nice to see races last at least 45+ minutes.

Trebor901 · Dec 18, 2011

Bruno Sousa Ferreira said:
60 km is a step in the right direction but still a bit too short, would be nice to see races last at least 45+ minutes.

then it wouldnt be touring cars would it touring cars should be about close racing over a sprint

Bram Hengeveld · Dec 18, 2011

The Sporting Regulations for the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship have been published by the FIA and are available for download here.Let’s see what are the major changes compared to the 2011 season.

Art. 10 - The championship is now reserved for Super 2000 cars powered by 1.6-litre turbo engines. Old S2000 (2.0L normally aspirated) and S2000D (2.0L turbo diesel) may also be allowed to participate on condition that they are entirely in conformity with the technical regulations. Other cars complying with the technical regulations of national championships may be accepted by the Touring Car Committee, but cannot score points.
Art. 11 - The distance of each race may vary between a minimum of 50 km to a maximum of 60, while in the previous years it was limited to a maximum of 50 km.
Art. 17 - Although the point scoring system for the races remains based on the usual FIA World Championship scale that rewards the first ten drivers classified, additional points will be awarded to the first five drivers classified in each qualifying session.
Art. 47 - Drivers who receive three reprimands in the same season will be penalised with a drop of ten positions on the starting grid for the first race after the imposition of the third penalty.
Art. 52 - Race numbers will be moved from the front doors to the rear side windows, above the driver’s name, like on rally cars.
Art. 67 - Each competitor will be allowed to use a maximum of 16 new slick tyres on his first participation and a maximum of 20 (12 new) in each of the following events. The number of rain tyres is limited to a maximum of 16 per event.
Art. 73 / 74 - Each driver is allowed to use only one engine for the whole season and any change will automatically result in a drop to the back of the grid.The number of turbochargers that may be used on each car is limited to six for the whole season.
Art. 79 - The Compensation Weight system was also slightly revised and is now based on the fastest lap set in the qualifying session and the average of the two fastest laps set in the races by the best two cars of each model. The range of application remains between +40kg and -20kg.
Art. 118 - During the qualifying sessions, the number of cars allowed to advance from Q1 to Q2 has been increased from ten to twelve.
Art. 129 and 132 - The twelve cars qualified for Q2 will fight for the top twelve positions on the starting grid for Race 1. The starting grid for Race 2 will be drawn up by reversing the ten fastest cars of Q2.

Xosé Estrada · Dec 19, 2011

The numbers thing I guess is to give more room to sponsors, which is good as with names/liveries nobody really looks for the numbers I think.

Yann Laprevotte · Dec 19, 2011

Disappointed with the new qualifying/reversed grid rules. Sure, it won't be worse than the Q1 madness we've seen in 2011, but we will probably see a few guys aiming at 10th in Q2 in order to get the race 2 pole. And giving so many points to the top 5 of Q2? Hm. Sure, I take it as an attempt to stop people from pulling the "slow down" trick too much. But touring car racing is about racing, not holapping. Just IMO.

Oh well. Why making it simple when you can make it complicated? :/

Bram Hengeveld · Dec 20, 2011

Tom Coronel is set to become the first racing driver to travel in the outer space! In 2014 the Dutchman will be part of the crew of the SXC Space Expedition Curaçao, a business venture organized by Dutch businessman Michiel Mol, former owner of the Spyker F1 team and now a shareholder in the Force India Formula 1 team.

Lol can only be him doing this

Appie Kuipers · Dec 20, 2011

Lets hope this does'nt end in a drama

Bram Hengeveld · Dec 20, 2011

If I could afford it this would be the way to go

Awesome

Xosé Estrada · Dec 21, 2011

I'm so picky with this things, but actually this guy was the first man on space and is not in the video for some reason...

Brian Duddy · Dec 27, 2011

Rob Shillito said:
then it wouldnt be touring cars would it touring cars should be about close racing over a sprint

Really?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_World_Touring_Car_Championship_season#1987_Calendar

Rhys Gardiner · Dec 27, 2011

Yeah, there's no real rule on how long or short a Touring Car race needs to be. Touring cars are defined by their resemblance to road machinery, not race length.

Bram Hengeveld · Dec 27, 2011

Current rules say a maximum of 50 kilometers per race, which is now going to be revised and upgraded to 60.

Imo different tracks can have different race length (remember the 87 WTCC on the ring

) but obviously the series have to keep in mind that Eurosport should broadcast the races, therefor they can't be too long.

Martijn Scheffel · Dec 27, 2011

The way he normally drives a car, he already is an astronaut

Bram Hengeveld · Dec 27, 2011

Xosé Estrada · Dec 27, 2011

That talks about suicide actually

Bram Hengeveld · Dec 28, 2011

TMS, the team which ran the works LADA team in the 2009 World Touring Car Championship plan to enter the Hungarian and Portuguese rounds of next year's WTCC with the LADA Granta Sport.

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