The 2020 World Touring Car Cup was the third season of the World Touring Car Cup and 16th overall of the series, which dates back to the 2005 World Touring Car Championship.
The drivers' championship was won by Yann Ehrlacher. The teams' championship was won by Cyan Racing Lynk & Co.
Teams and drivers Team Car No. Drivers Class Rounds Ref. BRC Hyundai N Lukoil Squadra Corse Hyundai i30 N TCR 1 Norbert Michelisz 1, 3–6 30 Gabriele Tarquini 1, 3–6 Vuković Motorsport Renault Mégane R.S. Evo TCR 7 Jack Young R T 1–2 34 Aurélien Comte T 3–6 Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Engstler Hyundai i30 N TCR 8 Luca Engstler R 1, 3–6 27 Mitchell Cheah R 6 40 Josh Files 5 88 Nicky Catsburg 1, 3 97 Nico Gruber R 4 ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport Honda Civic Type R TCR (FK8) 9 Attila Tassi All 18 Tiago Monteiro All ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport 29 Néstor Girolami All 86 Esteban Guerrieri All Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Lynk & Co 03 TCR 11 Thed Björk All 12 Santiago Urrutia All Cyan Racing Lynk & Co 68 Yann Ehrlacher All 100 Yvan Muller All Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR 16 Gilles Magnus R T All Audi Sport Team Comtoyou DHL 17 Nathanaël Berthon T All 31 Tom Coronel T All Zengő Motorsport Services KFT CUPRA León Competición TCR 55 Bence Boldizs R T All 96 Mikel Azcona All 99 Gábor Kismarty-Lechner T All Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR 69 Jean-Karl Vernay T All Wildcard entries Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS TCR 15 Nicolas Baert 5 Vexta Domy CUPRA León Competición TCR 22 Petr Fulín 3 Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR 25 Luca Filippi 1, 3–4, 6 Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR 28 José Manuel Sapag 4, 6 Vuković Motorsport Renault Mégane R.S. Evo TCR 33 Dylan O'Keeffe 1 Icon ClassR Eligible for FIA Rookie awardT Eligible for WTCR Trophy
Summary JAS Motorsport and Honda Racing retained their 2019 drivers – Attila Tassi, Tiago Monteiro, Néstor Girolami and Esteban Guerrieri – for the 2020 season. On 5 March it was announced that all four drivers would compete for Münnich Motorsport, which would expand from two cars last season. To meet series regulations the team was split into two entities – ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport and ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport – with driver pairings yet to be confirmed. On 2 June it was announced that Attila Tassi and Tiago Monteiro would join the ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport with Néstor Girolami and Esteban Guerrieri remaining at the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport.
Volkswagen Motorsport announced that it would cease manufacturer support for the Golf GTI TCR along with all petrol-powered motorsport programmes, though the Golf GTI TCR would still be available to private teams. This announcement came along with the shift of the brand's policy towards electric racing. Sébastien Loeb Racing, which had run four Golf GTI TCR cars during the 2019 season, announced on 31 January 2020 that it would leave the series.
Audi opted not to introduce a successor to the RS 3 LMS for 2020, while also ending their manufacturer support in the series, though the RS 3 LMS would still be available to private teams. Days before the announcement, W Racing Team, competing under the Audi Sport Team Leopard Racing banner, announced that it would cease participation in the series after the 2019 season to focus on their racing programmes in GT racing and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
Tom Coronel remained with Comtoyou Racing, but switched from the Cupra León TCR to the Audi RS 3 LMS TCR. Nathanaël Berthon returned to the WTCR driving for Comtoyou Racing.
Cyan Racing committed to run four Lynk & Co 03 TCR cars for the season. On 26 March Yann Ehrlacher and Yvan Muller were confirmed as drivers for Cyan Racing Lynk & Co.
Hyundai was again represented by four Hyundai i30 N TCR entries. BRC Racing Team scaled down to two cars after fielding all four entries last year, and entered under the BRC Hyundai N Lukoil Squadra Corse banner with reigning champion Norbert Michelisz and Gabriele Tarquini. Engstler Motorsport returned to the series for the first time since the 2014 season (back when it was called the World Touring Car Championship) fielding the remaining two Hyundai cars under the Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team name for Luca Engstler —who made his full-season début after entering once as a wildcard entry for the 2019 season as well as being replacement for Augusto Farfus at the Macau race weekend last year— and Nicky Catsburg. With these changes, Farfus left the team.
SEAT Cupra announced on 3 April 2020 that they would not offer manufacturer support to any team in the 2020 Championship, though the new León Competición TCR would still be available to private teams. On 14 May 2020, it was announced that the Cupra Leon Competición TCR would compete in the championship, with teams and drivers yet to be named. On 30 May 2020, it was announced that Zengő Motorsport would return to the WTCR, running two new León Competición TCR cars, for Bence Boldizs and a yet-to-be-named driver. It was announced on 28 August that he would be joined by Mikel Azcona and Gábor Kismarty-Lechner in a three-car lineup.
Jean-Karl Vernay switched from W Racing Team to Team Mulsanne, which run a single Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce TCR.
Vuković Motorsport joined the grid running a single Renault Mégane R.S. TCR for Jack Young. Aurélien Comte later replaced Young from the Slovakia Race onwards, thereby switching from DG Sport Compétition to Vuković Motorsport.
Calendar
A provisional calendar was released on 5 December 2019.
The 2020 championship was contested over 16 races in six rounds in Europe. The season was originally planned to be contested over 20 races in 10 rounds, but this changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Round Race Race name Circuit Date Supporting 1 1Oscaro Race of Belgium The Circuit Terlamen Zolder, Heusden-Zolder 12 SeptemberTCR Europe Touring Car Series Cup & Tourenwagen Trophy Dutch Truck Racing Championship 2 13 September 2 3 DHL Race of Germany Nürburgring Nordschleife, Nürburg 24 September24 Hours NürburgringADAC Formula 4 Championship 4 25 September 3 5 Race of Slovakia Automotodróm Slovakia Ring, Dunajská Streda District 10 October FIA Swift Cup Europe Inter Cars Mazda MX-5 Cup 6 11 October 7 4 8 Oscaro Race of Hungary Hungaroring, Mogyoród 17 October FIA European Truck Racing Championship 9 18 October 10 5 11 Race of Spain MotorLand Aragón, Alcañiz 31 OctoberF4 Spanish ChampionshipRenault Clio Cup Spain 12 1 November 13 6 14 Race of Aragón MotorLand Aragón, Alcañiz 14 November Pure ETCR (presentation event) 15 15 November 16
+ Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Race Race name Circuit Original date Original supporting Notes Race of Morocco Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan 5 AprilRace of Portugal Circuito Internacional de Vila Real 21 JuneRace of China Ningbo International Circuit 6 SeptemberRace of Austria Salzburgring 12 SeptemberRace of Korea Inje Speedium 18 October Pure ETCR (demo event)Race of Italy Adria International Raceway 15 November 2020 Guia Race of Macau Guia Circuit, Macau 22 November2020 F3 Macau Grand Prix The 2020 edition was instead held as part of the 2020 China TCR championship, supporting the 2020 China F4 championship Macau GPRace of Malaysia Sepang International Circuit, Sepang 13 December
Rule changes
Technical changes Compensation weight was measured differently compared to the previous season with now only the qualifying laps counted. Previously a combination of both the qualifying and race laps was used to determine the compensation weight. The change came to avoid teams instructing drivers to set slower race laps. The Balance of Performance parameters for the cars remains unaffected. Goodyear became the series' tyre supplier, replacing Yokohama after a fourteen-year tenure as Yokohama elected to concentrate on developing tyres for the Super Formula and Super GT championships. Teams had a set of 18 new tyres for the opening round of the season, with the number being decreased to 12 for the remaining rounds.
Sporting changes For the first time since the 2010 World Touring Car Championship, a rookie category was introduced in the series. Drivers under the age of 23 were eligible as long as they had not raced in more than three race weekends in the series prior to this season. The three-race schedule that had been in use for the previous two seasons, was cut down to two, citing cost-cutting measures, reducing the number of races from thirty to twenty. As a result, only a single qualifying session would be held. The race length for Race 2 would be three laps longer than Race 1 as a direct result of the reduced number of events. After just two rounds the series reverted to the three race format from the Race of Slovakia onwards. Teams running two cars were restricted to 12-man personnel with three-car teams allowed 18-man personnel. The number of personnel working on the cars, wearing designated armbands, was restricted to ten. In light of the economical situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, teams were allowed to enter just one car for the 2020 season, though they would not be eligible to score points in the teams' championship. The WTCR Trophy was introduced for the 2020 season. Drivers who did not have financial support from customer racing department and haven't won the championship in either WTCR or its predecessor —the World Touring Car Championship— were allowed to score points in the WTCR Trophy.
Results Race Race name Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team Rookie Winner WTCR Trophy Winner Report 1 Race of Belgium Néstor Girolami Néstor Girolami ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Gilles Magnus Tom Coronel Report 2 Nathanaël Berthon Nathanaël Berthon Yann Ehrlacher Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Gilles Magnus Gilles Magnus 3 Race of Germany Yann Ehrlacher Esteban Guerrieri ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Gilles Magnus Tom Coronel Report 4 Néstor Girolami Yann Ehrlacher Yann Ehrlacher Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Bence Boldizs Jean-Karl Vernay 5 Race of Slovakia Nathanaël Berthon Thed Björk Nathanaël Berthon Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Gilles Magnus Nathanaël Berthon Report 6 Mikel Azcona Tom Coronel Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport Gilles Magnus Tom Coronel 7 Nathanaël Berthon Nicky Catsburg Nicky Catsburg Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team Gilles Magnus Nathanaël Berthon 8 Race of Hungary Esteban Guerrieri Norbert Michelisz Esteban Guerrieri ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Luca Engstler Jean-Karl Vernay Report 9 Norbert Michelisz Yann Ehrlacher Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Bence Boldizs Jean-Karl Vernay 10 Esteban Guerrieri Tiago Monteiro Esteban Guerrieri ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Gilles Magnus Jean-Karl Vernay 11 Race of Spain Norbert Michelisz Gilles Magnus Jean-Karl Vernay Team Mulsanne Gilles Magnus Jean-Karl Vernay Report 12 Nathanaël Berthon Mikel Azcona Zengő Motorsport Services KFT Gilles Magnus Nathanaël Berthon 13 Gilles Magnus Thed Björk Thed Björk Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Gilles Magnus Nathanaël Berthon 14 Race of Aragón Santiago Urrutia Mikel Azcona Esteban Guerrieri ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Gilles Magnus Gilles Magnus Report 15 Yvan Muller Yvan Muller Cyan Racing Lynk & Co Gilles Magnus Jean-Karl Vernay 16 Santiago Urrutia Santiago Urrutia Santiago Urrutia Cyan Performance Lynk & Co Gilles Magnus Jean-Karl Vernay
Championship standings Scoring system Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th Qualifying 1 & 3 5 4 3 2 1colspan=10 Race 25 20 16 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Scoring system for WTCR Trophy Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th FL Qualifying 1 1colspan=5 Race 10 8 5 3 1 1
Drivers' championship