2012 World Touring Car Championship

[Thilo Falkenberg]

First I thought the departure of Chevy in WTCC makes room for Opel in DTM (that was romoured quiet a while back) but with the newest developments in Detroit, the European motorsports market might be left open for Peugeot/Citroen in future (with the exception of the Corvette GTEs at LeMans most likely).

With the newest numbers and developments around their World Rallye team, nothing will come from PSA's side concerning motorsports. GM Europe and PSA are both in trouble. At least Chevy leaves a very good race car on the Touring Car market. Maybe that will become the next Alfa Romeo.
Also nothing new from Ford. Means we stick with two manufactor teams - Honda, which will debut at the Asian rounds and Lada which proved to be fast but not reliable.

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

The layout for WTCC is revealed. And it is not drivable in iRacing, I believe http://www.fiawtcc.com/news/detail/id/282

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Interesting track for sure.

But what has happened to WTCC this year. I keep missing 75% of the races. Coverage online is very very poor. Are they deliberately letting the series die now?

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

There are 4 race weekends still left. There was this big summer break with a second big gap following to avoid the Olympic Games and the Euro. Maybe you have the feeling you missed the races due to this large time without some.

But yeah, only 12 articles in nearly 3 weeks on fiawtcc.com, that's rather weak. It's still more then on gt1world.com in the same time although they had races and WTCC didn't.

 

[Juen-Jen Wang]

Hey guys, I have a burning question to those who are knowledgeable about racing politics and FIA dealings. So a quick backstory on what I'm doing:

Recently I've been making conscious decisions to collect and follow certain series as far as I can get broadcasts for them.

I have all the IndyCar races from 1985,1987-2001, IRL 2003-2007, and ICS (the current merged indycar) 2008-2012. I also have all the season reviews for WRC from 1984 to now.

I want a touring car database where I can look back and enjoy some older TC races will keeping up to date with TC races now. I'd like to download and store an international TC series so naturally I decided to grab WTCC. But I've been worried about something. I've noticed that WTCC isn't as popular as it could or rather... should. Do you think WTCC is in trouble of folding? Or... rather declining to the point where it's not a series worth following anymore?

I've actively avoided collecting GT1 because of this because I knew GT1 had been in financial trouble for a while and it's going to fold now because of it. I don't want to put all this effort into finding and storing WTCC races if WTCC isn't going to last in the long term.

What do you guys think? I was told that a lot of Europeans don't care about WTCC at all so I'm just worried I'll be following a series that wont be around for long and if that's the case I wont bother collecting the races

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

Well it is not in trouble of folding anytime soon as long as they don't suddenly and drastically change rules, but that threatens every kind of sports (not only motorsports). WTCC as it is currently presents itself in a healthy state. 20+ car grids throughout a season, two fresh manufactors for 2013 with a potential third one (Ford?! Where is your statement!!!) and new teams which state their interest in joining the championship. Of course the cars are not as cheap as one would wish to give the privateers a bit more breathing room, but the teams survive currently. Also the series is pretty international. In fact it is the only FIA World Championship to have a round in Africa. As you can see in the current death of the FIA GT1, the worse the state of a series is the less international races they do. WTCC might have left the European core markets France, GB and Germany, but in Hungary or Slovakia they are getting larger track side crowds.

Maybe the only bad thing right now is the "video game" partner... I mean where is the promised free-to-play WTCC 2012 game SimBin?

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

Lukoil is reported to sponsor Lada next season, with Dudokalo as Russian driver for the second car. Should this be true, it is doubtfull Lukoil Racing stays with seat and likely becomes the team for the Lada manufactor program.

(Source, German)

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

The rumours are getting stronger that multiple WRC champion Loeb will enter the WTCC after his contract with Peugeot ends. Two weeks ago he already tested a Chevrolet Cruze on Rockingham, but also Subaru is also linked with Loeb

http://www.fiawtcc.com/news/detail/id/320

you were right, also I was proved wrong about what PSA will do... but yeah Chevy is gone right after the ink between PSA and GM dried and Citroen jumps on board. Sounds like GM is gone to make room for PSA in Europe motorsport-wise.

Also the carlendar for 2013 was revealed:
10.03.2013 - Monza (Italy)
24.03.2013 - TBD (Spain)
07.04.2013 - Marrakech (Morocco)
28.04.2013 - Bratislava (Slovakia)
05.05.2013 - Budapest (Hungary)
19.05.2013 - Salzburg (Austria)
09.06.2013 - Moscow (Russia)
30.06.2013 - Porto (Portugal)
28.07.2013 - Curitiba (Brazil)
22.09.2013 - Sonoma (USA)
20.10.2013 - Suzuka (Japan)
03.11.2013 - Shanghai (China)
17.11.2013 - Macau (SAR Macau)

 

[William Levesque]

I think Dodge should get in Touring Car racing with their new Dart

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

See the following press release about the new partnership between Eurosport and FIA:

The FIA and Eurosport Events Ltd. have renewed their commercial rights agreement for the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

This is the second renewal of the agreement among the parties, since the FIA appointed Eurosport Events as WTCC championship promoter back in 2005.

The new contract will have a duration of five years, until December 31, 2017.

Jean Todt, FIA President said: “The FIA is delighted to carry on this cooperation with Eurosport Events that has proved so fruitful so far. During these eight years it has been promoting the World Touring Car Championship, the FIA and Eurosport Events put in a huge effort to make the championship growing in competition on the track and popularity worldwide. The renewal of the agreement will further enhance the cooperation among the parties to make the championship even stronger.”

Laurent Eric Le Lay, Eurosport CEO commented: “We greatly appreciate the value of the fact that the FIA wished to continue placing its trust in Eurosport Events. This new agreement is a powerful motivation for us to redouble our efforts and work in partnership with them for another five years. We are confident that the WTCC has a huge potential to grow further, up to the highest level in motorsport, attracting new car manufacturers and expanding its presence in the key automotive markets worldwide.”

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

Some silly season news:

Also Barcelona was thrown from the 2013 carlender and confirmed for the 2014 season. Consequently the season opener will be in Monza and the season will only feature 12 instead of 13 rounds.

All-Inkl.com Münnich Motorsports confirmed to Red Bull Media House's Speedweek magazine that they will enter WTCC with a 3 car program featuring GT1 world champions Markus Winkelhock and Marc Basseng, as well as René Münnich. However this is against a quote of Markus Winkelhock to not want to race in WTCC. For preperations Münnich Motorsports will compete in the 24h of Dubai in a Seat Leon Supercopa. Meanwhile Special Tuning (SRT) said they are planning for the 2013 WTCC season. There are also speculations that Yvan Muller stays within the company and will partner up with Sebastien Loeb for Citroen for their debut season in 2014.

Subaru will be announcing their plans to enter or to not-enter WTCC within the next 7 days. A car is already ready and, with a few modifications, would be running 2013 already, with a second car potentially joining during the season. The other option would be to run in WRC. WTCC boss Lotti however is postive about Subaru choosing his series.

If I may dream about it:
This season we had at least 20 cars at every race if I remember correctly. Taking this numer as full time entry number. Then we have OAK racing possibly joining with the two (the car which raced and the car they tested) 2012 Honda Civic (+2), Honda bringing two 2013 Honda Civic (+1), Münnich Motorsport entering three Seat Leon (+3). If RML stays it is more likely to run a two car program (-1), Lukoil Racing Team will most likely leave the series its sponsor however is with the two new Lada (0), Engström Motorsport could join (+1), maybe NIKA Racing joins (they already raced at Monza this year with Rickard Rydell, +1), Subaru joins (+1). That would mean 8 more cars on the grid, of which 4 are safe bets. Maybe one or two teams reducing their programs, but 22-24 sounds realistic.

So 30 car grids at European rounds (and Macau) might also be likely.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I hope that Eurosport/KSO will re-think about their marketing strategy for next season as this year was horrible.

Missed out on 75% of the races, no news, no nice youtube videos anymore and if you are not a regular Eurosport watcher like myself you then miss out completely.

Nice to have some GT1 teams joining the party for next year but if they don't manage to bring back the atmospher that has brought WTCC a lot of credits in the past I think its doomed.

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

I hope that Eurosport/KSO will re-think about their marketing strategy for next season as this year was horrible.

The numbers don't support you. The viewerminutes increased by 45%. That's the result of a said-to-be independent research institute.

I actually hope that Tom Coronell continues his Youtube videos. They are nice.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Oh thats a big surprise to me to be honest. Maybe caused by the small simracing world we live in Are those Eurosport viewer numbers or are the numbers included from domestic broadcasters that show the highlights as we have here in the Netherlands.

Tom's videos are good fun indeed and always some nice camera angles you miss in the real broadcasts.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

So, what will Coronel do next season? Continue with the dead-slow BMW, or try to get his hands on a new car?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

All the Honda's are taken I believe. So yeah another season with ROAL I guess.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Meh :/

 

[Thilo Falkenberg]

These numbers are a surprise indeed. I think though that this might be combined numbers including local broadcasts, since it said at no point that it would be just Eurosport.

Coronel I believe stays with ROAL. But about the Hondas, it depends what happens with the 2012 Hondas. Tarquini and Monteiro will race 2013 ones. There is the rumour that the 2012 ones could be entered by OAK Racing which is interested in having a second series to compete in alongside their WEC program.