The 2011 World Touring Car Championship season was the eighth season of the FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the seventh since its 2005 return. The championship, which was open to Super 2000 cars and Diesel 2000 cars, began with the Race of Brazil at Curitiba on 20 March and ended with the Guia Race of Macau at the Guia Circuit on 20 November, after twelve events and twenty-four races.
The series underwent major changes with new circuits Suzuka and Tianma coming into the championship, new drivers such as Pepe Oriola to SUNRED Engineering and Robert Dahlgren with Polestar Racing for the whole season. The series lost the FIA Formula Two Championship as a support championship, but it was replaced by Auto GP. It was also supported by a brand new series, European Production Series which supported the six rounds at Zolder, Monza, Brno, Donington, Oschersleben and Valencia.
Teams and drivers A provisional list of teams and drivers was revealed on 23 February, and the official entry list was published on 4 March.
TeamCarNo.DriversEvents Manufacturer Teams Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1 Yvan Muller All 2 Robert Huff All 6 Carlos 'Cacá' Bueno 1 8 Alain Menu All Lukoil – SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 3 Gabriele Tarquini 1–4 SUNRED SR León 1.6T 5–12 SUNRED Engineering SEAT León 2.0 TDI 18 Tiago Monteiro 1–4 SUNRED SR León 1.6T 5–12 ROAL Motorsport BMW 320 TC 15 Tom Coronel All Polestar Racing Volvo C30 30 Robert Dahlgren 1–4 Volvo C30 DRIVe 5–12 Yokohama Trophy Lukoil – SUNRED SUNRED SR León 1.6T 4 Aleksey Dudukalo 7–12 SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED 7 Fredy Barth 4–12 SUNRED Engineering 17 Michel Nykjær 4–12 74 Pepe Oriola 4–12 Zengõ-Dension Team BMW 320 TC 5 Norbert Michelisz 2–12 bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 9 Darryl O'Young 2–12 10 Yukinori Taniguchi 2–12 Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320 TC 11 Kristian Poulsen All 12 Franz Engstler All Proteam Racing BMW 320 TC 20 Javier Villa All 25 Mehdi Bennani All Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC 26 Stefano D'Aste 6, 8–9 29 Colin Turkington 7, 10–11 35 Urs Sonderegger 2–5 DeTeam KK Motorsport BMW 320 TC 64 David Sigachev 9 65 Marchy Lee 1–3 Jay-Ten Trophy Lukoil – SUNRED SEAT León 2.0 TDI 4 Aleksey Dudukalo 1–6 SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED 7 Fredy Barth 1–3 SUNRED Engineering 17 Michel Nykjær 1–3 74 Pepe Oriola 1–3 bamboo-engineering Chevrolet Lacetti 9 Darryl O'Young 1 10 Yukinori Taniguchi 1 Borusan Otomotiv Motorsport BMW 320si 13 Ibrahim Okyay 3, 8 Proteam RacingBMW 320si LCI 21 Fabio Fabiani 1–4, 7–10 Liqui Moly Team Engstler 11 Asian Wild Card Entries Proteam Racing BMW 320si LCI 23 Philip Ma 11–12 Wiechers-Sport BMW 320 TC 28 Gary Kwok 12 Chevrolet RML Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 31 Toshi Arai 10 Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320si LCI 52 Jo Merszei 12 51 Charles Ng 10 DeTeam KK Motorsport BMW 320 TC 11–12 68 Masaki Kano 10 SUNRED Engineering SUNRED SR León 1.6T 66 André Couto 12 88 Hiroki Yoshimoto 10 RPM Racing Team BMW 320si 70 Mak Ka Lok 12 Corsa Motorsport Chevrolet Lacetti 75 Felipe De Souza 12 76 Kuok Io Keong 12 778 Auto Sport Peugeot 308 77 Lo Ka Chun 12
Team and driver changes Chevrolet retained their three full-time drivers from 2010, Yvan Muller, Robert Huff and Alain Menu. Cacá Bueno also joined the team in a fourth car at his home meeting in Curitiba. The team utilized the newly introduced engine. Again, two further Chevrolets were entered by bamboo-engineering, who retained their 2010 drivers, Darryl O'Young and Yukinori Taniguchi. Bamboo campaigned Lacettis at the first round in Curitiba, but contested the rest of the season with Cruzes.
SUNRED Engineering again ran six cars through three different team guises. Gabriele Tarquini remained with the team and was joined by former SEAT León Eurocup racer Aleksei Dudukalo, who brought Lukoil sponsorship into the team. Another three-car outfit was headed by Tiago Monteiro, who was joined by Michel Nykjær, and another graduate from the SEAT León Eurocup, Pepe Oriola. Fredy Barth completed the SEAT sextet, with his SEAT Swiss Racing by SUNRED team. The SEATs began the season using a two-litre turbo diesel engine and from Hungary introduced a similar engine to that used in the Chevrolets. However, the cars were branded as SR Leon with no SEAT support at all. Leaving the team is Jordi Gené, who parted with the team before the end of the 2010 season.
Norbert Michelisz remained in the championship with the Zengő Dension Team, but switched to a BMW 320 TC, having campaigned a SEAT in 2010, winning a race at Macau. He began his campaign at the second round of the season at Zolder. Three other teams campaigned a single 320 TC during the season; ROAL Motorsport returned to the series, with Tom Coronel switching from a SUNRED SEAT, Wiechers-Sport ran Urs Sonderegger – another driver from the SEAT León Eurocup – at the European races held during the season, and DeTeam KK Motorsport ran Marchy Lee, who steps up from the Asian Porsche Carrera Cup.
The factory BMW Team RBM did not return in 2011, and drivers Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx moved into sportscar racing, entering the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. Independent BMWs were however campaigned by the Proteam Racing and Liqui Moly Team Engstler outfits. Proteam ran three BMWs; two 320 TCs for Mehdi Bennani, who moves from Wiechers-Sport and former single-seater racer Javier Villa, as well as a naturally aspirated 320si for Fabio Fabiani. Bennani and Villa replaced Independents' champion Sergio Hernández and Stefano D'Aste. Team Engstler ran two cars once again, with Franz Engstler being joined by Kristian Poulsen, who drove for his own team in 2010 after driving for Engstler in 2009. Poulsen replaced Andrei Romanov.
Polestar Racing campaigned a Volvo full-time in 2011, having contested five meetings over the past four seasons. Swedish Touring Car Championship runner-up Robert Dahlgren again campaigned the car as he had done in each of Polestar's events to date. The team also introduced a similar engine in the mid-season.
Calendar The provisional calendar for the 2011 season was approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council on 8 September 2010 with further amendments on 3 November 2010, 7 December 2010 and 8 March 2011.
Event Race Name Track Date 1 R1 Race of Brazil Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba 20 March R2 2 R3 Monroe Race of Belgium Circuit Zolder 24 April R4 3 R5 Race of Italy Autodromo Nazionale di Monza 15 May R6 4 R7 Race of Hungary Hungaroring 5 June R8 5 R9 Monroe Race of the Czech Republic Masaryk Circuit 19 June R10 6 R11 Race of Turismo de Portugal Circuito da Boavista 3 July R12 7 R13 Race of UK Donington Park 17 July R14 8 R15 bet-at-home.com Race of Germany Motorsport Arena Oschersleben 31 July R16 9 R17 interwetten.com Race of Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo 4 September R18 10 R19 Kenwood Race of Japan Suzuka Circuit 23 October R20 11 R21 Race of China Shanghai Tianma Circuit 6 November R22 12 R23 Race of Macau Guia Circuit 20 November R24
Calendar changes The Race of Brazil was going to move from Curitiba to Interlagos. The move was reverted due to logistical issues connected to renovation at Interlagos in regards to safety in the Subida dos Boxes area, which has been the site of touring car fatalities. The Race of China will be held for the first time. It was originally scheduled to be held at the Guangdong International Circuit, but was later relocated to the Tianma Circuit. The Race of Portugal returned to Porto as in recent odd years. The Race of Japan moved from Okayama to Suzuka. The Race of UK moved from Brands Hatch to Donington Park. The Race of Argentina was originally scheduled to be held in Buenos Aires, but was dropped from the calendar and replaced with the Race of Belgium when the circuit failed its homologation and it was found that there would not be enough time to complete the work necessary to upgrade the circuit to the required standard. The Race of Morocco was dropped from the calendar, and replaced by the new Race of Hungary.
Results and standings
Races Race Race Name Pole Position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team winner Winner Report 1 Race of Brazil Robert Huff Robert Huff Robert Huff Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Michel Nykjær Report 2 Robert Huff Alain Menu Chevrolet Javier Villa Pepe Oriola 3 Race of Belgium Robert Huff Robert Huff Robert Huff Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Michel Nykjær Report 4 Javier Villa Gabriele Tarquini Lukoil – SUNRED Darryl O'Young Michel Nykjær 5 Race of Italy Robert Huff Yvan Muller Robert Huff Chevrolet Norbert Michelisz Fredy Barth Report 6 Yvan Muller Robert Huff Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Pepe Oriola 7 Race of Hungary Alain Menu Norbert Michelisz Alain Menu Chevrolet Norbert Michelisz Aleksei Dudukalo Report 8 Norbert Michelisz Yvan Muller Chevrolet Franz Engstler Aleksei Dudukalo 9 Yvan Muller Robert Huff Robert Huff Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Aleksei Dudukalo Report 10 Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Aleksei Dudukalo 11 Race of Portugal Alain Menu Alain Menu Alain Menu Chevrolet Norbert Michelisz no finishers Report 12 Robert Huff Robert Huff Chevrolet Norbert Michelisz Aleksei Dudukalo 13 Race of UK Yvan Muller Robert Huff Yvan Muller Chevrolet Franz Engstler no finishers Report 14 Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Chevrolet Franz Engstler no finishers 15 Race of Germany Yvan Muller Robert Huff Yvan Muller Chevrolet Stefano D'Aste Ibrahim Okyay Report 16 Tom Coronel Franz Engstler Liqui Moly Team Engstler Franz Engstler Ibrahim Okyay 17 Race of Spain Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Fabio Fabiani Report 18 Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Fabio Fabiani 19 Race of Japan Alain Menu Alain Menu Alain Menu Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Charles Ng Report 20 Robert Dahlgren Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Michel Nykjær Charles Ng 21 Race of China Alain Menu Robert Huff Alain Menu Chevrolet Colin Turkington Fabio Fabiani Report 22 Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Chevrolet Colin Turkington Fabio Fabiani 23 Guia Race of Macau Robert Huff Yvan Muller Robert Huff Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Jo Merszei Report 24 Robert Huff Robert Huff Chevrolet Michel Nykjær Jo Merszei
Championship standings Points system 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 251815121086421
Drivers' Championship