The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a single season in 1987 as the World Touring Car Championship and most recently a world championship (WTCC) that has run between 2005 and 2017. Following the 2017 season, an agreement was reached for the FIA WTCC to become FIA WTCR and use the TCR technical regulations.
History
First season
The first World Touring Car Championship, which was open to Group A Touring Cars, was held in 1987 concurrent to the long-running European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Additional rounds were held outside Europe at Bathurst and Calder Park Raceway in Australia (Calder used a combined circuit of the road course and the then newly constructed NASCAR speedway), Wellington in New Zealand and Mount Fuji in Japan. The Championship was well-supported by the factory European teams of Ford, BMW, Maserati and Alfa Romeo (until Alfa withdrew following the European races), but was embroiled in controversy. Unfortunately, the leading BMW Motorsport teams and the Ford Europe-backed Eggenberger Motorsport had developed a situation of "you don't protest us, we won't protest you". While this worked well in the European races, when the championship landed in Australia the local teams took exception to the Europeans' somewhat liberal interpretation of the Group A rules. Subsequently, the Eggenberger cars were protested against and eventually disqualified from the Bathurst 1000 results.
The championship was provisionally awarded to West German Eggenberger Ford Sierra RS500 drivers Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz. It was not until March 1988 when their Bathurst disqualification was finalised that results were confirmed and Italian Schnitzer Motorsport driver Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3 was declared the champion. The Entrants Championship was won by the Eggenberger Texaco Ford No 7 entry. The WTCC lasted only one year and was a victim of its own success — the FIA (and Bernie Ecclestone) feared it would take money away from Formula One and stopped sanctioning the Championship. A silhouette formula championship (proposed by Ecclestone) was announced by the FIA for 1988 which would have seen specialist racing chassis carrying bodywork resembling production roadcars powered by the about to be outlawed Formula One 1.5 litre turbo regulations, but manufacturers did not support the concept. Only one car, based on an Alfa Romeo 164 with a 3.5 litre V10 engine was built before the idea was abandoned.
European Touring Car Championship
In 2001, the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) was resumed with support from the FIA, the precursor to the current WTCC. In 2001, the Italian Superturismo Championship became the FIA European Super Touring Championship, with an extra class for Super Production cars alongside the main Super Touring class. In 2002, this evolved into the brand new FIA European Touring Car Championship, using Super 2000 rules, dominated by Alfa Romeo and BMW, but popular with the public due to the intense competition and Eurosport live broadcasts.
Return to World Championship status
At the request of interested manufacturers, the ETCC was changed to the current WTCC beginning with the 2005 season, continuing to use Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 regulations. 2004 ETCC Champion Andy Priaulx and his BMW 320i were the dominant driver-car pairing during the first three years of the revived championship, winning the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Drivers and Manufacturers Championships.
In 2008, Frenchman Yvan Muller won the title after Race 1 in Macau in his SEAT León TDI. This marked the first time an FIA sanctioned world championship, in any category, being won by a diesel powered racing car. SEAT León TDI won both championships for a second time in 2009, this time in the hands of Gabriele Tarquini.
2010 marked the start of Chevrolet's dominance of the championship with its Cruze model. Frenchman Yvan Muller became World Champion, fending off tough competition from Gabriele Tarquini and Andy Priaulx to win the first world championship for Chevrolet. Muller continued his success into 2011, winning both drivers championship and helping Chevrolet to its second manufacturers championship after Muller's two teammates finished second and third in the drivers standings. This gave Chevrolet a clean sweep of both titles. The 2012 championship saw Chevrolet pick up where they left off in 2011, leading to a second year of championship clean sweeps, this time with Rob Huff taking the drivers title.
The modern series has held events based all around the world including races in Argentina, Morocco, Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, Portugal, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Japan, China, Thailand and Qatar with former races in Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Macau, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.
Technical rules were modified in 2011 to allow 1.6L turbo gasoline engines, and the 2.0L gasoline and turbodiesel engines were outlawed in 2012. In 2014, new car regulations were introduced with the name TC1, with larger wings and more engine power. The old 1.6L turbo cars were renamed TC2 for a year and were dropped for 2015.
World Touring Car Cup
The series adopted TCR regulations and merged with the TCR International Series for 2018, with the new merged series being named World Touring Car Cup (WTCR). The WTCR lost the World Championship status of the WTCC as official factory teams were not allowed, though some drivers and teams received backing from manufacturers.
Car regulations The WTCC uses Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars, as cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. Super 2000 engines are 1.6 L turbo-charged 4-cylinder engines producing approximately 380 bhp. Wheels are 18" in diameter, and large front and rear aerodynamic devices are permitted.
Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, including variable valve timing, variable intake geometry, ABS brakes and traction control system.
Scoring system
Current scoring system Currently, all WTCC races are awarded equal points. From 2010, these points have been based on the FIA's points system used in the FIA Formula One Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship.
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Points 25 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1
Previous points systems Between 2005 and 2009, the championship adopted the following points scoring system: Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Points 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1
For the inaugural 1987 season, the championship used the following points scoring system: Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Points 20 15 12 10 6 5 4 3 2 1
Champions +World Touring Car Champions and Independents' Trophy winners by seasonYearDrivers' ChampionEntrants' ChampionIndependent Drivers' TrophyIndependent Teams' Trophy1987 Roberto Ravaglia Eggenberger MotorsportNo. 7Not HeldNot HeldYearDrivers' ChampionManufacturers' ChampionIndependent Drivers' TrophyIndependent Teams' Trophy2005 Andy Priaulx BMW Marc Hennerici Proteam Motorsport2006 Andy Priaulx BMW Tom Coronel GR Asia2007 Andy Priaulx BMW Stefano D'Aste Proteam Motorsport2008 Yvan Muller SEAT Sergio Hernández Proteam Motorsport2009 Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Tom Coronel SUNRED Engineering2010 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Sergio Hernández Proteam Motorsport2011 Yvan Muller Chevrolet Kristian Poulsen Liqui Moly Team Engstler2012 Robert Huff Chevrolet Norbert Michelisz Lukoil Racing Team2013 Yvan Muller Honda James Nash RML2014 José María López Citroën Franz Engstler ROAL Motorsport2015 José María López Citroën Norbert Michelisz ROAL Motorsport2016 José María López Citroën Mehdi Bennani Sébastien Loeb Racing2017 Thed Björk Volvo Tom Chilton Sébastien Loeb Racing
+World Touring Car Champions by number of titles wonDriversManufacturersRankDriverTitlesSeasonsRankManufacturerTitlesSeasons 1st Yvan Muller 4 2008, 2010, 2011, 20131st BMW 3 2005, 2006, 20072nd Andy Priaulx 3 2005, 2006, 2007 Chevrolet 3 2010, 2011, 2012 José María López 3 2014, 2015, 2016 Citroën 3 2014, 2015, 20164th Gabriele Tarquini 1 2009 4th SEAT 2 2008, 2009 Robert Huff 1 20125th Honda 1 2013 Thed Björk 1 2017 Volvo 1 2017
Event winners As per FIA WTCC all-time statistics on the official site of the WTCC.
+DriversDriverTotal1 Yvan Muller 482 Robert Huff 29 José María López 294 Alain Menu 235 Gabriele Tarquini 226 Andy Priaulx 187 Augusto Farfus 158 Tiago Monteiro 119 Jörg Müller 1010 Norbert Michelisz 811 Tom Chilton 712 Mehdi Bennani 6 Tom Coronel 6 Sébastien Loeb 615 Rickard Rydell 516 Jordi Gené 4 Fabrizio Giovanardi 4 Dirk Müller 4 James Thompson 4 Alessandro Zanardi 421 Thed Björk 3 Esteban Guerrieri 3 Michel Nykjær 324 Nicky Catsburg 2 Stefano D'Aste 2 James Nash 2 Félix Porteiro 2 Ma Qinghua 229 Yann Ehrlacher 1 Franz Engstler 1 Néstor Girolami 1 Sergio Hernández 1 Duncan Huisman 1 Nicola Larini 1 Gianni Morbidelli 1 Pepe Oriola 1 Salvatore Tavano 1 Peter Terting 1 Colin Turkington 1
+ManufacturersManufacturerTotal1 Chevrolet882 BMW653 Citroën574 SEAT435 Honda206 Alfa Romeo157 Lada68 Volvo 5 Ford 5
+CarsCarTotal1 Citroën C-Elysée WTCC 572 Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 553 BMW 320si 434 Honda Civic WTCC 195 SEAT León 2.0 TDI 176 Alfa Romeo 156 14 Chevrolet Lacetti 14 SEAT León TDI 149 Chevrolet Cruze LT 1310 BMW 320i 911 BMW 320 TC 812 Chevrolet Cruze TC1 613 Volvo S60 WTCC 5 BMW M3 515 Lada Vesta WTCC 4 SEAT León 4 SEAT León WTCC 4 Ford Sierra RS500 419 SEAT Toledo Cupra 320 Lada Granta TC1 221 Honda Accord Euro R 1 SEAT León TFSI 1 Alfa Romeo 75 1 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 1
Manufacturer entries The WTCC features entries with the backing, funding and technical support of a motor manufacturer. This can sometimes be a motor racing team running cars on behalf of the manufacturer or cars being run directly by the factory. Below is a timeline of manufacturer entries from the beginning of the championship in 2005. Manufacturer entries2005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017Alfa RomeoBMWChevroletCitroënFordHondaHondaLadaLadaSEATVolvoVolvo2005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017
See also World Touring Car Cup European Touring Car Championship SEAT León Eurocup TCR International Series List of World Touring Car Championship drivers
References
Autosport, January 14, 1988
External links